the Chaplain’s Corner
By: Chaplain (Maj.) Jon Pirtle | Georgia Army National Guard
“The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only oneeighth of it being above water.” That was a line from Ernest Hemingway’s “Death in the Afternoon”, about his style of writing. His style is often imitated but seldom surpassed. So much of the beauty and pathos in Hemingway’s writing occurs because its power comes through what is not said, in the seven-eighths of the iceberg that remain under water. In his fiction, relationships are often depicted as on the brink, but the couple refuses to speak overtly what they are feeling. “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are two of Hemingway’s masterpieces illustrating his iceberg style of writing. “Hey, chaplain; got a minute?” That’s the way the deepest conversations begin, at least in my experience as a chaplain. “Of course. What’s up?” And then I hear the story. Sometimes the conversation is a search for marriage counseling. Sometimes it is about a crisis in one’s faith or worldview. Sometimes it is about trust andlack thereof. Sometimes the person just needs someone he/she can confide in who will not betray the information, but will remain one who genuinely cares and will walk with him/her through the valley of the shadow of death, and do so in confidence. And conversations often demonstrate Hemingway’s iceberg style, wherein the heart of the issue is often located in what is not being said. Beautiful times come in chaplaincy, too: engagements, weddings, births of children and grandchildren, dedications, baptisms, retirements, promotions, etc. There is nothing quite like military chaplaincy wherein we get to minister to soldiers, their families, and even our civilians in their questions, their doubts,
their celebrations, and yes, in their grief. If it is true that seveneighths of an iceberg remains unseen ,at least by most eyes, it is a privilege to serve our nation’s warriors in their depths, in their unspoken but experienced realities, and minister to them so that they continue to selflessly serve our nation.
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