Strength Is Not Measured by That Which You Would Kill For

Often throughout my life I've heard people say what they would kill for. I'm not talking about "God, I'd kill for a cold beer." but of ideas, or country.

While watching Ken Burns' latest documentary series one veteran commented that "It is hard to give up someone else's life." My grandfather always told me that what one would die for always says more about a man that what he would kill for.

Once I grew up I started to realize what that really meant. Killing, fundamentally, is easy. The act of taking a life is simple and for many people the repurcussions (guilt, incarcerations, various mental issues) may not even come to years later. Additionally, as compared to dying, killing can be done repeatedly.

Death, being a permanent condition is rather harder to accept. I rarely ever hear anyone speak seriously of what they'd die for.

I think that such casual statements of what one would kill for are also part of the overal degredation of the english language we have constantly been enduring but that is a rant for a different day.