Lest We Forget

We promised them glory. We offered them the world. We said they'd be heroes. Did we forget to mention they they might be dead heroes?

Hello internet, it's been a while I know.

A lot has happened since I last posted on here. I have moved back home with my parents, I have moved away from music college to an ordinary university, I rejoined old choirs, I've joined new choirs, I've passed my driving test, I've acquired a car, and I'm altogether a much happier person.

It is that time of the year again, that day that gets me every time. November 11th. Armistice Day. 

This morning I paraded to the cenotaph with my church choir, the local cadet force, members of the british legion, brownies, rainbows, guides, and the majority of my village. We respected the 2 minutes silence, we layed our wreaths, and then we paraded back up the church for a service. It is so moving to see a usually bare church packed with people sharing one common cause. We prayed for things that sometime seem impossible - peace across the world, something that at times seems like an impossible idea…

There will be no peace:
till attitudes change; 
till self-interest is seen as part of common interest; 
till old wrongs, old scores, old mistakes 
are deleted from the account; 
till the aim becomes co-operation and mutual benefit 
rather than revenge or seizing maximum personal or group gain; 
till justice and equality before the law 
become the basis of government; 
till basic freedoms exist; 
till leaders - political, religious, educational - and the police and media 
wholeheartedly embrace the concepts of justice, equality, freedom, tolerance, and reconciliation as a basis for renewal; 
till parents teach their children new ways to think about people.
There will be no peace: 
till enemies become fellow human beings. 

David Roberts 
22 July 1999

A teacher in the book "The History Boys" by Alan Bennett suggests that carving names on stone is a way not to remember but to forget. Perhaps to forget the grief, the heartache and pain, the loss and desolation. A guilt free way to shove terrible events to the back of your mind. I disagree. The act of carving names into stone for all to see means that now, almost 100 years on, we can still know the names of the people who died fighting for us in WW1, we can still personally pray for those people, and thank them for doing what they did so that we could have better lives today. Why would you want to forget that?

My Grandparents were all involved in World War II. My Granddad's were both soldiers, one of my Granny's was an ambulance driver, the other was a nurse. Today I remembered them, and thanked them, with all the other people who served our country,for giving their lives, for giving their tomorrows for our today, and i prayed that they rest in peace.

"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
to children ardent for some desperate glory,
the old lie; Dulce et Decorum set
Pro Patria Mori"
Wilfred Owen
translates to "It is Sweet and Glorious to die for ones country".

'Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there. I did not die.'

Mary Elizabeth Frye

"They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the Sun and in the morning, we will remember them." 

Robert Laurence Binyon

"When you go home, tell them of us and say,

for your tomorrow we gave our today."

Lest We Forget.