November 11, 2010.
At the Cenotaph Service, at 10:30 a.m. today, in Centennial Park, which commemorates all those who have lost their lives in wars, both global and regional, we see another kind of community event take place, one that knits the Islanders together in yet a different way.
Memory is the glue that links generations.
The poem by Canadian John MacRae, serving in World War One, "In Flanders Fields", evokes the battlefield losses. The symbol of the poppy is a message of respect for those who died, preserving the message of societal freedom, in "their time".
We are all prisoners of our time. We don't create the larger events that occur in our lifetimes, but we do have the choice how to respond to them.
Young men in World War One, 1914 to 1918, more young men between 1939 and 1945 with World War Two, the Korean War of the early 1950s, the Viet Nam War of the mid-60s to early 70s, the current conflicts in Iraq and in Afghanistan...it seems every generation has its struggle with the positive/negative mindset....
So, losses occur in family units that have repurcussions beyond the immediate blow of losing a loved one. The voice of a father or grandfather is stilled...the lore of the family tree is lost...children suffer that absence, and may be maimed in ways that don't appear on the surface.
Books are written and films are made that search out the outcomes of the loss of a parent, killed in a war.
To remember those fallen, those absent, all of them young, 17 to 23 years old, so young, is not a validation of war. It is, rather, a recognition of respect for those who served, "regardless"...who stepped to the plate as that dynamic just happened to fall "on their watch", in their time.
We owe a duty of care to memory.
If one does not acknowledge the past, one is doomed to repeat it -- isn't that what historians promise?
Two minutes of silence, at 11 a.m., on the 11th day, of the 11th month...a small moment of recognition and gratitude. Lucky us that we escaped the duty of their time, that we are able to enjoy the sun on our face, in freedom....
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