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The Art of War | Part II | War Songs

I loved watching romance movies as a child. I found Love much more Beautiful than War. Perhaps it was because I Knew Love from my parents, but I was too young to Know the reality of War in this world. I could relate to Love, and it always left me with a Good feeling, even if some of the Stories were sad.

Movies like The Notebook, Beauty and the Beast, and Titanic were the ones on repeat - Beauty Preserved and neatly packaged in plastic VHS cases so I could relive them again and again.

As I've grown up, I've realized that War can be found here, too, if you look closely.

Think of a heart shot straight through with an arrow during a true love's kiss in the rain; a Story taken from a page in a Notebook, written by our heart-stricken Romantic and read to his Beautiful Beloved, that she might never Forget the Love they shared.

Consider the Healing kiss as the last petal of a Red Rose full of Thorns fell, resuscitating a Beloved fallen soldier in a raging battle of angry villagers and knick-knacks.

What about giving your Loved one the spot on the sinking ship debris in the War between a warm heart and an Icy Atlantic Sea? A sacrificial act to Save her Beautiful Life, allowing your own to freeze over.

We've seen how Inspiration strikes when we behold Beauty. But have you ever felt Inspired when you couldn't See anything Beautiful? A grief and despair so deep, with Beauty nowhere to be Found, yet a deep and inexplainable longing for it echoing in the silence?

Lamentations set to music ring out in that silence in one of the most grief-striken songs that has been Set Apart in our age, the words of Trent Reznor: "I Hurt myself today / to see if I still feel / I focus on the pain / the only thing that's real". You might recall these words from another musician. Johnny Cash must have Found something about these words worth Preserving on the last studio album of his lifetime.

Johnny changed a word in the song, however. He Found that changing this word changed the Story. The original lyrics from Nine Inch Nails tell it this way:

I wear this crown of shit / upon my liar's chair / full of broken thoughts / I cannot repair

The song was covered with this edit:

I wear this crown of thorns / upon my liar's chair / full of broken thoughts / I cannot repair

There's a Story in the The Holy Bible about Someone else who wore a crown of Thorns. I wonder if, perhaps, Johnny made this change to point to the "Red X" that marked the spot for the Beautiful Treasure he once Found, a Treasure that Healed his Hurt.

It's amazing how changing just one Word can completely re-write a Story, isn't it?

Lately, when I haven't been reading War Stories, I've been watching Adventure movies about Treasure Hunting. I recently watched a new film starring John Krasinski called, The Fountain of Youth. I Found an interesting clue:

The Holy Wicked Bible

Yes, it exists. How had I never heard of this before??

This version, misprinted in 1613 by King James I's royal printers, omitted a word in Chapter 20 of the book of Exodus. Verse 14 that should have read, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" in Moses' record of The Ten Commandments was misprinted: "Thou shalt commit adultery."

As you might imagine, it was quite the scandal. The printers lost their jobs and were steeply fined. The misprinted copies of The Wicked Bible were hunted down and destroyed. Not many are left Preserved. You see, omitting the word 'not' from this text completely changes the Story of The Holy Bible.

How?

Well, in Act I of The Bible, God's people were known as 'An Adulterous Nation' - meaning, they worshipped idols. The Author makes a pretty big deal about it.

It's amazing how changing just one Word can completely re-write a Story, isn't it?

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