This date, November 11, is a very humbling one. A day of deep reflection, a day when instead of looking at the ground of where we tread, we look at the sky. The unchanging sky that those before us saw in their dieing moments.
Remembrance day.
For nearly 100 years, ever since the official end of world war I, this date has been a day of solemn remembrance. To any and all who have sacrificed in a war. There are so many that fall into this category, and I feel that many of them are not as reflected upon as we would want them to be.
This is the day we remember every sacrifice. The sacrifice for a mother of her lost son, of a family for their home that was destroyed, of the many who starved due to rationing, conscription, the sacrifice of having to live your life in fear, the sacrifice of having another mans blood on your hands, the psychological trauma, stress, health conditions, death.
Now, if you do read this blog regularly enough, you're probably expecting me to go on about how I feel that our generation does not appreciate this day enough.
To be honest, I feel that to be partially true, but also to be over stated. I know that most people who realize the occasion do take the solemn time to think, for a few minutes about the importance of the day. AFter all, we are still living our own lives and we cannot always live in the past. How ever, I feel that many do not delve deep enough into the reflection, and they think only about how these lives meant their lives today. Once or twice my friends, try to put your self in a soldiers shoes.
There are certain things in life that are completely un negotiable, certain loyalties that you follow. An example would be your dormant love for your parents. No matter how much one may think he hates his parents, naturally his heart and body has affection to them.
Another, is a soldiers duty to his band of brothers, to the flying flag of the country he represents. This is why soldiers are out there, they have an undying loyalty to fight for their country, for their families and for their friends. To have the strength of will, of mind and power.
Many of the tasks we do in our every day lives have a purpose and task. We go to the library to check out a book, we are loyal to this author, so we want to check out his book. But then we are weak. Our minds can be so easily diverted, we do not go to the library because we are too lazy and just want to sit around on Facebook.
This is not a soldiers life, they go away from home to fight for home. While away, they risk life and death every day for their country, for their flag. This is the un negotiable loyalty of a soldier. To have the mind and will to assault a fortified position, because they know that it has to be done, despite the fact that they will very likely die. That is a sign of absolutely unwavering loyalty. This is, I feel one of the greatest qualities of a human being.
Read the post right below this one, it talks about our perspective of reality. This is a very similar situation, hopefully, we may never know what it feels like to be a soldier or any victim of war. But we can imagine my friends, on this day put yourself in someone else's shoes. Imagine a victim of a war, pick any war and just imagine that today, November 11 you are that person. Then, I think we may truly appreciate the sacrifices that have brought humanity this far.
War, I believe is necessary. I feel that the human population does indeed need controlling, wars have also helped us to advance so far technologically.
However, it is nothing to be taken lightly. Of every war that has happened in history, those people lived through suffering like that which you can never imagine. Did a girl or guy ever break your heart? Well imagine that pain magnified a thousand times. People who saw through eyes, thought through a mind, felt through their hands, smelt their rationed dinner and chewed on the tasteless junk. These people need to be commemorated, they need to be remembered.
Imagine my friends, if you lived through that. In your dieing moments, would you too not hope that some day that the world remembers? That this same event never happens again?
Or maybe you survived, would you ever want to experience this again, would you ever want someone else to experience it again?
Remembrance day. While it may only have started on November 11th 1918, and isn't specified in every country, I feel that this day represents so much more than the sacrifices of human beings in war. I feel that it represents the struggle of humans as a species through out our history.
There is so much behind that last statement, take it for what you take it.
But this day my friends, this is a day we remember those who sacrificed in war. I'm not going to be cliche and say "so that we may live our lives today." No. That is not the sole reason why these people sacrificed.
They were put in a situation of horrible hardships. A human instinct to survive kicked in. A situation which no individual should have to face. Of course they sacrificed, but not for us. Our great life is a result of their sacrifice.
A man (or woman) I feel must be remembered by more than who they were, they must be remembered for their ideals, for what they stood for. To only remember these great heroes because of what they did for us, I feel is too selfish. These were human beings like me and you, remember what was important to them in their lives, why they truly did what they did.
And then, I think you will truly remember.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSJ8rDlBZ_I
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