Today is one of those gloomy Sundays. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s misty and it’s not really gotten daylight all day. So it’s one of those days that I really don’t like. I read something on Facebook that a friend sent me the other day and it went like this:
‘You know you are a runner ………..when your immediate response to any conflict or problem life throws at you is: “I need to go for a run!”‘
Well that’s me all over and it is exactly why I was sent it. Needless to say, when you are having a midlife crisis you run a lot! I’m probably the fittest I’ve ever been. So this Sunday morning started with a very early run through the gloom and mist because basically if I feel miserable, which I did, I go for a run and I feel so much better after.
Today is also a bit of a sad day in the UK because it’s Remembrance Sunday. I’m not a particularly religious person but I always do make an effort to gather at the village war memorial with everyone else at 11:00am on Remembrance Sunday to do just that, to remember. So this morning’s run was not too long as I had to be back for that.
It’s important to remember. Not just to pay respects to those young men who gave up their lives so we might have the lives and freedom that we have today, but to remind ourselves what happened and to ensure that it never ever happens again, amongst ourselves in Europe at least. I understand absolutely the need to defend ourselves but it still makes me so so sad that still after all these years somewhere in this world people continue to fight, because in a war there are no winners. It’s so important that we make sure our children understand this, from as early an age as possible too, as we are reliant on them to make sure it doesn’t re-occur.
I’m quite interested in history as I do believe that you can look to history to give you the answers as to what not to do in the future. I’ve been to Auschwitz, not just because I have some some strange morbid fascination but just because I wanted to see it for myself and just to try and understand why. It is truly as horrific as you expect it to be and it is impossible to describe the impact it will have on you, you really do have to see it first hand . When my two were 13 and 15 I took them on a trip to Belgium which coincided with them both learning about the two European World Wars. We did the visit to Ypres and the Menin gate, we visited some preserved battlefields and went in some of the bunkers and trenches. I also took them to Tyne Cot Cemetery. For anyone not familiar with Tyne Cot it is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. There are 11,961 white headstones for the 11,961 soldiers buried there. What makes it even sadder is that 8,373 have no name, they were unidentifiable. It’s one of those places that once visited you never ever forget, a very beautiful, calm and peaceful place but at the time very eerie and utterly heart-breaking. Just the vastness of it, the little white headstones stretching out as far as the eye can see. Both boys were silent, I think everything that they had been learning about came together and they understood why it should never happen again.
In my reading, and visiting places to try and understand better, a couple of years ago I came across the speech delivered by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich on 19th September 1946 after World War II in which he said: “We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living. The process is simple. All that is needed is the resolve of hundreds of millions of men and women to do right instead of wrong and to gain as their reward blessing instead of cursing.“
Quite a poignant quote for today really. I wonder what he would think to the battles we continue to fight today. I discovered the above speech just before Brexit ironically and I wondered at the time what he would have thought to that as the UK led that disassembly of a United States of Europe that so many thousands fought and lost their lives for.
Anyway, enough of my rambling on ……… onto today. The weather sort of fitted the mood. The church, which sits opposite the memorial was shrouded in mist and you could see your breath in front of you. There was a huge turn out of people as usual. We processed through the village slowly, led by the wonderful Old Silkstone Brass Band. The brownies and scouts were all out in force to lead the lowering and raising of the flags and did a wonderful job as always. It always makes me emotional to see them as it takes me back to when my two were little and used to participate, marching along in their scout uniforms, complete with starched necker for the parade, shoes polished to within an inch of their life.
I think there will be very few people in the UK who don’t have a family member that served in the war. Today, in addition to remembering everyone, I say a special little thank you to my relatives who served in World War II, Great Uncle Vincent Sharpe, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and Robert F Poston Junior, T Sergeant in the United States Army who was stationed over here in the war and met and married by beautiful Great Auntie Betty shortly after the war and gave me my lovely American family.
So today and every day, those famous words from one verse of Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’, which is worth a read in its entirety if you’ve not read it before:
They shall grow not 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.
Tomorrow will be a better day.