Depression and love

Happy belated Easter! I thought about Grandpa a lot this Easter. He would have definitely written something about peace and the resurrection or something about sin and hope.  Well, I finally finished the one book of memoirs and started another called "We Have Just Begun to Not Fight." I have to admit, I'm getting kind of burnt-out on memoirs. I need to get back into something else. My dad recently found some old postcards of Grandpa's so I'm looking forward to reading those. If I can, I'll scan some in and post them.

There was one interesting interview in my most recent book from a gentlemen who was actually in NSBRO (the peace church committee that ran  the CPS camps). He said that he didn't think the CPS camps were run the way they should have. He stated that the government's involvement hamstrung a lot of what they could have done. The purpose of the peace churches was to spread the pacifist message and help out with war recovery efforts. The purpose of the selective service was to keep the camps out of site and out of the minds of the public.  These were cross purposes that came head to head quite often. After the war, the peace churches and many of the COs went on to do reconstruction work.  Another interesting point that this new book brought up was the impact to the wives of the men in camp.  Many of them had difficulty holding a job after their husband's CO status had been learned.

Another insight in this new book was that many of the CPS campers had trouble adjusting and became very depressed.  These men were used to being around their families and used to having meaningful work that would support that family.  They had trouble adjusting without that support group and that purpose to which they had assigned self worth. The book went on to describe that one psychologist even had trouble getting the approval to release these men from the camps for medical reasons. The camp's director had to re-write (with the doctor's final approval) many of the patient's psychological descriptions stating that they were a danger to themselves or others in order to get them released. There has always been a stigma of weakness ascribed to mental health patients and this was compounded by the fact that these men were also objecting to participate in a war that many others were willing to sacrifice their lives for (and kill others) which is also seen by many as a weakness.

I've often found it interesting how our culture perceives weakness. Love is often looked at as a weaker alternative to fighting. I know in my relationships, when I get really really angry, it is much more difficult and takes much more strength to not yell or want to strike out, but to stay calm and realize that love is still there which makes it worth the effort to WORK through problems instead of resorting to violence. In my experience, love takes much more fortitude and strength than fighting. Next time you're watching TV, pay attention to how strength and weakness are portrayed and see if it makes sense considering your experience.