Remembrance Day:
I read, in those lines of names, all the fresh emotion of loss.
It is easier to think of it as in the past, to fix that hurt to a time long gone; to empathise, but not be involved.
This is not how it is.
War has not ceased. The lines of names are not static.
And, beyond this, we ourselves are not immortal. We will be leaving this world, every one of us.
Loss is what our lives should seek to balance.
Be grateful for this chance - be cheerful and bold and embracing and mindful.
Accept yourself.
The best person you can be is not the one who beats you up for not being better.
Push yourself.
Outside the comfort barriers, living begins.
Who died for your right to shuffle in drabness, bored and unfulfilled?
The dream was freedom from oppression.
What would they want to tell us, the people whose names are on that list?
What would they say was important?
Love. The comfort of a well made sandwich. Sunsets. How Aunt Flo never forgot a birthday. A sea breeze. Those friends and family stories of hilarious improprieties. A kind passerby who made up the gap in a bus fare. Coming home.
The details of life, appreciated.
And the bigger picture - the backdrop - is a world in which these details are important.
That would be worth the fight.
It is easier to think of it as in the past, to fix that hurt to a time long gone; to empathise, but not be involved.
This is not how it is.
War has not ceased. The lines of names are not static.
And, beyond this, we ourselves are not immortal. We will be leaving this world, every one of us.
Loss is what our lives should seek to balance.
Be grateful for this chance - be cheerful and bold and embracing and mindful.
Accept yourself.
The best person you can be is not the one who beats you up for not being better.
Push yourself.
Outside the comfort barriers, living begins.
Who died for your right to shuffle in drabness, bored and unfulfilled?
The dream was freedom from oppression.
What would they want to tell us, the people whose names are on that list?
What would they say was important?
Love. The comfort of a well made sandwich. Sunsets. How Aunt Flo never forgot a birthday. A sea breeze. Those friends and family stories of hilarious improprieties. A kind passerby who made up the gap in a bus fare. Coming home.
The details of life, appreciated.
And the bigger picture - the backdrop - is a world in which these details are important.
That would be worth the fight.
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