the 11th of the 11th, 2011. Around the world a day of remembrance. A day to honour those who gave everything so that we could live in freedom. It’s a freedom that we take for granted but on a day like this you need to sit back, soak up the silence and be grateful for what other peoples sacrifice has given each and every one of us. Whether it’s world war 1 or any conflict up to the current day let’s remember that this isn’t a day of remembering war, it’s a day of remembering people. Not the war mongers, not the politicians, not the generals ordering men from the breach. It’s a day to remember the guys who whether in brave belief of their cause or fear of the consequences climbed out of those trenches and ran through the mud or shielded the child from the roadside IED in a desert far from home. Beliefs over whether we should be in current war zones or not aside, it’s a time to remember the men and women as mothers, father, sons, daughters.
Remember laughter and life, lightness and joy, not death and destruction.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Given the current economic situation and the fact that whichever way you look at it, it’s been brought on by pig ignorant greed by a minority who have gambled the benefit of the many for the profit of the few, I have to wonder what would those men of flanders field make of it all. Have those people who have allowed themselves to become obsessed with ever increasing bank balances and profit margins broken faith with those who laid down their lives to give us freedom?
Capitalism isn’t, to my mind at least, wrong in and of itself, it’s human nature to want more, to keep striding forward BUT there has to be an element of self restraint. I could go out fishing along the rivers here every day but it’d well and truly bugger it up for others so I don’t. Simple manners and self restraint. A consideration for others and an understanding that no matter what I want to achieve in life I won’t tread someone else into the ground to get it. I fish enough to get my jollies, I’m not concerned with maximising my fishing or for that matter, increasing it’s productivity. If I wanted to do that I’d just take a sodding big net and dredge everything out in one go.
It’s back to the question of how much is enough? The protestors sitting outside St Pauls aren’t there because of some idealistic complaint about capitalism, they’re there because we’re now in a situation where the gap between high and low paid is higher than at pretty much any time in modern history, where gluttony is the aspiration of many. MUST-gasp-MAKE-gasp-MORE…
I’ve gone from the bravery of the fallen to the wrongs of greed in a short word or two, my mind must need a dose of coffee or something, but then it’s been an odd day. I stood outside the grounds of the Italianate church in Wilton, an outsider just paying my respects silently as the remembrance ceremony took place at 11:00. I just drifted over between emails and phone calls, but the ceremony will forever remind me of growing up with granny shedding a tear watching the service at the cenotaph in London each year. Memories of loss are daunting, but watching Joe play this evening, seeing his excitement about his rugby match tomorrow afternoon – then you see, I’m not focussed on the loss. It’s the future that counts, the freedom that he enjoys, the opportunities that life is gracing him with. That’s what counts and for that every single one of us should remember and give thanks, at least once a year.
The rambling mutterings of Malcolm Anderson. Squeaky wheel championing the re-wilding of the English Chalkstream.
