Why We Seek Out What We’ve Lost
At some point in life, all of us search for something. Perhaps we search for the fulfillment of our dreams. Perhaps we are looking for the answers to the important questions in life. Perhaps we are looking for peace of mind or for a quiet place to call our sanctuary. Perhaps we are searching for the love of our life. Perhaps we want justice to be served. Perhaps we are looking for people we’ve lost and memories we desperately want to linger on. Whatever it is we are searching for, almost always, we are in search for our own benefit, not to benefit the object or subject of our search. This much is true during and after a war. The same applies when families and friends back home search for their missing soldiers. True enough, fast and swift search-and-rescue missions might save those who are initially listed as missing in action. That part of the operation is clearly for the missing persons, but when there is no possible reconciliation, why do we still continue searching, sometimes even years after one was lost? We search for closure. Despite knowing the probable results of our search, we continue in order to finally and completely leave the past to the past. Take those soldiers in World War II who are still categorized as missing in action. There are still 72,000 World War II soldiers unaccounted for today. Imagine their families. Imagine their friends. Since the war ended, that part of their lives has remained a question mark. There are no bodies to bury, and except for the graves for the unknown, there is no particular grave to mourn over. Over the course of the years, these bereaved families and friends must have wondered a thousand times what transpired during the last moments of their soldiers—What happened to them? Where did they go? What were their last thoughts? It’s easy to emphasize with bereaved families and friends. We only need to put ourselves in their shoes and let our humanity prevail. Losing someone in a war and not knowing what happened to him or her is a pain that no one should suffer. Wars should never happen in the first place. Not after the destruction we’ve seen in the past. It is with love, so much love, that we remember the families and friends of those 72,000 lost soldiers. May they find their peace. Read the full article
