“In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.” – Jose Narosky
Today is the day we observe Veterans Day, and I’m finding that in the UK, it’s a much more serious business. It was bizarre to see a piece on it on CBeebies — it was actually pretty ghastly, because they apparently interviewed two little boys whose father had died. Recently. I don’t know for sure, I had the sound off, but the red-rimmed eyes of eight and ten year olds aren’t something you expect on kid’s TV. These people are hardcore with the reality thing. I’m not sure if I should say “well done,” or “Stop, you idiots.” Probably, “Well done…”
At the Presby church this past week, and all around town since the beginning of this month, I’ve seen people wearing it. The poppy. It’s not something seen back home. Ironic, since it seems that the U.S. is the one that starts all the wars, and Scotland’s only been in ONE in the last forty years… and it was a just war, as far as that goes, where everyone needs to dogpile on a crazy man to stop him killing off people he doesn’t like. It wasn’t to do with oil, in other words.
Poppies.
Since they’re fake — and red, and to me poppies are the California type that are orange — I didn’t get the whole flower thing for a little while, but it quickly came back to me.. We started to memorize that dreadful McCrae poem in school, (In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the gravestones crosses, row on row) – right before we memorized Carl Sanburg’s Grass. All of this put me in mind of when we went to Louisiana. Driving down the I-10, seeing all those bizarrely placed graves, just… coffins sitting on the ground covered by moss, essentially. And I realized. We stop. The Civil War stopped. Slaves rest bloodless in their graves. Grass, mold, weeds, poppies… go on.
It’s weird, being so disconnected here in the UK, but I can hardly stand to see a newspaper. The world seems to be drowning in the “blood dimm’d tide,” and as the center slips, I find that I cannot watch. But I find that I can no more look away…
Sometimes. What we are striving so bravely to bring forth into this world seems quite pointless. And then I wonder if pacifism is merely a guise for apathy…
The Narosky quote really resonated with me. I don’t think any of us are unwounded anymore.