Shaping the Purple Heart: A Change of heart

I used to think it should be different; that unseen wounds of war were different. ‘They need to be honored,’ I said. The medal should be black, this color or that, or shaped otherwise to give it significance; separating it from the Purple Heart. I proposed a ‘black heart,’ and gave it my all.

Then I realized it was vanity. I realized that my speech, and all the forum given always led to the same end. All the discussions with veterans and strangers formed a consensus that the Purple Heart cannot be differentiated. It cannot be altered. It cannot be greater than it is because it is sacred, and man alone can make nothing sacred.

It was given to Washington under the hand of Providence to make it sacred, and it must never change.

Yes, it was vanity. Though support is overwhelmingly positive for the ‘black heart,’ to honor and save lives, many said they wouldn’t wear it. Call it stigma, call it whatever, but almost all agreed there was something else needed, something else was required to fulfill the need.

It was then I saw my error. I pushed for something stamp my name upon. To help, yes; but also to vanity. I only realized it in listening; stepping back to see the true nature of what veterans need: praying, silencing the mind to hear what was there all along.

Nothing else but the Purple Heart is necessary. Nothing else will do, nothing else can represent what combat does; what a veteran gives. Not black, but purple; purple as blood.

For what does it matter if foreign soil is watered by patriots if we don’t recognize the blood at home?

Now the focus changes:

Only with God is anything sacred, and as the Purple Heart is sacred, so is the sacrifice. Nothing else is so elemental, nothing else is so fundamental; and nothing else will do

Let us recognize wounds of war as sacred. Let us give honor where it is due: that blood shed in war is the same yesterday as it is today.

Honor the Purple Heart for unseen wounds of war.