"... soon no one
will march there
at all. "
At what point do we ourselves become those tired old pharts, lost in
dimly remembered stories, maybe which have some rambling point. but
beyond the understanding of the oh so younger listeners?
Knowing full well that although our hearts are strong, our bodies no
longer can carry the load out, our perceptions not quite sharp enough to protect us anymore.
This has been a rough three months for me, coming up to my 67th year.
Too much of small things that just seem too damn difficult, of afternoon naps, of trembling hands and stumbling words.
Maybe not so serious yet, but no longer able to keep up with my friends, all almost a decade younger.
Having finally gotten all the tools and toys - just about the time I can hardly effectively use them.
Hearing just now the average age of the so few remaining WW2 veterans is into their 90's.
Doing some math and realizing I now would only be the very youngest of
the Viet Nam era soldiers that shaped my own perceptions.
Watching a culture shaped by internet experts and politically correct
everything increasingly not understanding why we need to Remember and
ponder, at least for an hour, one day a year.
Has it *ever* been 'never again'?
Or more like the message has always been 'make it count'?
As we each, separated, but in spirit, not alone, raise a glass.
'To Absent Friends'
Those who know me, also know that Remembrance Day has always been important to me. My own military service, although limited and brief, happened at a critical age, and has shaped me deeply. This was the early 1970's, and I had lied about my age to sign up to the Canadian Army Reserves. Just about the same month of the Fall of Saigon. Over the next four years, a number of my instructors, and latter one of my oldest and closest friends, had served in there. Which itself would shape my perceptions and character.
Over the decades since, I've watched the controversy over 'The Day'. Largely from civilians so far removed that they just don't understand any of it. Watched the cycle of every twenty years, Never Again get submerged under 'It's good for Business', as another 'generation' of young innocents, nurtured on advertising / propaganda, become meat for the grinder.
Seeing full well that major corporations, spewing waste to sell us endless crap, are engineering a future of human turmoil, where once again the young will be called upon into destruction, to support that very few who have it all.