This year is 100 years later.
One hundred years since an armistice was signed.
One hundred years since the Great War, to end all wars, was completed.
One years of peace?
This year I attended a remembrance day celebration. We used to call them memorials – looking to the past – to memories. Now we are reminded of the future – that we can celebrate freedom. We long for peace and goodwill amongst the world’s citizens.
I honour those who sacrificed.
Their’s was a desire to keep evil from our doors, quite literally. The appeal to serve was a call to see justice done – to protect our freedoms. The push for conscription was to fill the ranks. Home service complemented overseas duty.
Warriors do not like to talk of the horrors of war – the bloodshed, the death of innocents, the pure evil of mass destruction. We have word for the effects of that horror – PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Warriors do like to talk of the necessity that this never happen again. They talk of the need to create a world – diverse as it may be – where we work together for the good of each other. We have a word for that – LOVE.
The word “duty” has become somewhat tarnished in our day. We see doing a task for others as duty – a despised task only undertaken because of guilt or force. The military, those involved in war, talk of duty. They see no joy in corruption, evil and senselessness – these need to be abolished. The desire is to serve justice, compassion and freedom – this is duty. Our due for what we have received.
In a world that seeks self-gratification, to deny one’s self is counter-intuitive. In fact, we seldom do anything that doesn’t benefit us. To love another person as much as I love myself – to be willing to die for another person – is seldom our first response.
However you spent Remembrance Day, let me challenge you.
May you find a way to turn to your neighbours, do a good deed, seek their best at your expense. Perhaps you will find a heart of duty that is not such a long way from the joy, peace and contentment we all seek.
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