A One Mission Family

Last weekend I saw the movie Unbroken, which tells the story of a former Olympic athlete who survived weeks at sea after his WWII plane was shot down only to be captured by Japanese forces and sent to several prison camps. It was a wonderful movie, and I highly recommend it. The movie reminded me of one of my own family members who survived a German prison camp.

David Ririe, my great-uncle, was shot down over Poland in 1942. It was his first combat mission as a bombardier, and his last. He was imprisoned until the Russians liberated him and the other prisoners 13 months later. Uncle David rarely talked about his experiences there, but the entire family knew that his dedication to God and dedication to family was strengthened during that trial. He had one mission from then on: be the best for God and his family.

Uncle David passed away a few years ago. It’s sad to see so many people from the great generation leave, but their legacy lives on. Uncle David taught me to persevere through any hardship. He taught me to treat others with respect, and he taught me to have one mission. My mission is to be the best for God and my family.

Irrational Love?

Maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s this old text, but I had a hard time wrapping my heard around this text. The only things that really stuck out to me was Gorgias’s focus on heeding to the irrational persuasion of love. He kept coming back to this as a major idea as to why Helen was in the situation she was. Maybe she was convinced by love. Gorgias almost made the irrational seem rational and tangible when talking about love and its compelling nature.

How many times in our lives have we let the irrational guide our opinions or actions? Of course, I’ve seen many women become tainted with irrational thought so much that it compelled them to action. Just today, I was talking with a friend about my desire to be nice and live guilt-free (in this particular situation, I was speaking of trying to let someone down without hurting feelings) and asking for advice for what to do in this situation. My friend and I were commiserating with each other, thinking about similar problems. Both being girls, we were letting our emotions guide a lot of our feelings. Luckily, there was a man standing behind us while we were talking who chimed in and gave us a more rational train of thought. My guilt (completely irrational) was guiding my thoughts and almost guided my actions. Luckily, this man was using much more persuasive logic.

Both of these stories question the validity of feelings and the pressures that we feel irrationally. I’m not sure what it was that caused Helen to do what she did, but Gorgias makes a very convincing argument that irrational thought may have been the culprit. After today’s events, I’d believe it, too.