Remembrance

Fallen and falling,
Broken bodies, haunted minds,
Fate in hands and hearts.

We must not forget the fallen of this and previous generations. Nor should we under-estimate the effect war has on survivors. My Dad talked more and more about it as he got older, the horrors of what he had witnessed never left him.

It's important to be silent and remember, but also to realise that we as a race make our own fate and only we can change it.

Wilfred Owen sums it all up better than I could ever hope to. ( I first read this poem while at school and have never forgotten it, especially the opening and final lines pure genius) ....

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

Anthem for doomed youth - Wilfred Owen




Post script:
Greg was working in MacDonalds today, where they observed the 2 minute silence at 11 o'clock. Someone came along to the drive thru at that moment and knocked on the window to be served .... he didn't stop even when it was made clear to him what was happening .... unbelievable! Greg refused to serve him until the silence was up, and to their credit, the management backed him up.


Yesterdays (more jolly) blip: here.