Poppies

I'll be wearing my poppy and going along at 11am to the 'Memorial Park' gates in the village. On the gateposts are listed those who died in WW1 and WW2. A church minister will conduct a short service and there will be the 2 minutes silence. I have no affinity to any conventional religion as such, but I daresay that those who do, and who have lost family members over the years can gain comfort in their own beliefs, as I do in mine.

I note that the right-wing press is using Remembrance Sunday/Armistice Day as an opportunity to complain about the reduction of British troops and talks about how dreadful it is that Britain will lose its tradition of international military might. It is indeed true that Britain has a long history of invading other countries – there can be few in the world that it hasn't wheeled its soldiers through at some point and, in some case, more than once. (At least the First Afghan War was a lot shorter than the present one, if just as pointless.) I don;t see this as a tradition of which we should be proud. Sadly, what was intended as a memorial honouring the glorious dead" – who coined that awful phrase – is easily hijacked by those with an axe to grind.

I usually go to the local memorial service with Cubs. Can't go this year as I'm doing something else (which may also help the Cubs and Scouts in due course). Last year, the most moving thing for me was a young woman (15/16?) playing the LastPost on her trumpet, all alone, in that crowd of people. Young people do appreciate their ancestors' efforts, I thought.

Counsellor? Friend? Supporter?

Humanist chaplain. Oh dear. Such religious connotations. Wish they'd find another word.

I confess I have not read all this thread, but today I will go to the local service outside our Memorial Hall in remembrance and gratitude. I have no religious affiliation.
Yesterday we visited my 90 year-old godfather. He said that his father had fought in WW1 and did not like Armistice Day, thinking that it was very difficult for the widows and fatherless children, bringing back painful memories.

I looked at the site for the UK Armed Forces Humanist Association and found that they had laid wreaths in both Edinburgh and Belfast this year - but were still refused a place in London.
They are also campaigning for non-religious chaplains to be available, to give comfort and support to those who do not have any religious beliefs.

A spokesman for the Forces Humanist group has just been interviewed in 'Sunday' on Radio 4. He pointed out that there was a higher percentage of non-believes(15%) in the armed forces than many of the very small religions that are represented at the Cenotaph. They have been asking for representation for ten years.

Thanks for the link, nightowl. I enjoyed reading that. I feel that same ambivalence that the writer mentions but I differ from him/her in that I don't think it's wrong not to wear any poppy.

I also don't think the universe is benign. I think the universe is completely and utterly indifferent. It simply exists.

Reading that article has settled something in my mind. Thanks again.

I have to agree with you, Mishap. I was watching one of my David Attenborough DVD's this week - Life in the Undergrowth. There is one insect that lays its larva in the body of a wasp. The maggot eats the wasp alive from the inside. All things bright and beautiful? I am glad I don't believe that any intelligent being created such horrors.

Interesting link - I wish that I shared the conviction that the world is a benign place - it seems pretty darned crusl to me - nature is based on survival of the fittest and we as humans have to srtive to rise above that and live compassionate lives.

Perhaps next year I will wear both a red and a white poppy.

www.quaker.org.uk/news/red-and-white-poppies

merlot one of my favourites of all times Mr Tom

I watched that lovely film, Goodnight Mr. Tom on ITV3 this afternoon while I was doing the ironing. A real tear jerker.

I am quite prepared to be shot down in flames (metaphorically anyway) and have to admit to being wrong. However, I think the symbol of poppies was mainly to suggest that WWI was "the war to end all war". It didn't happen – it isn't happening now.

Mamie; it's accounts like that which make war and the people caught up in it so tragic. Like the German airman that came down in his plane in 'Can Any Mother Help Me'; the local people tended his grave afterwards, I believe [it's a while since I read the book]. How good [but unbearably sad also] to know that those Welsh soldiers spent their last hours being so lovingly cared for.

Thank you soop.
I was thinking about it all this morning, as we did our shopping in our local town which was reduced to 80% rubble after the Canadians fought the last bitter battles at the end of the Normandy campaign. I have never heard anyone here complain, despite the massive destruction endured. You have to know people quite well before they will talk about it, but the memories are fascinating. One of our neighbours talks about the billeted German soldier who made cabbage soup every day and another about how their soldier used to want to lift her up in his arms, because he missed his own children so much.
The three Welsh soldiers who died near here were tended all night by villagers, but died of their wounds.

Mamie

I noticed that too jen

I saw on the news yesterday the wreathlaying of the forgotten army, in India and Burma.
One of the wreaths definitely had red and white poppies.
By the way, May 15th is Peace Day.

Agreed.

Yes. You are right Mamie.

Well I am an atheist and I am happy to be there. I don't join in the prayers, but I recognise that some of my family who died were Christians and some were not. It is remembering and reflecting that matters, not religion or politics.

Of course the Remembrance Service is for all the war dead.

I just can't see someone like you being happy to be there Bags given the Christian element involved.

I know there is a religious element to the service, but I have never for one minute thought that anyone was excluded from the honour paid to the dead by the Queen and the politicians and dignitaries. I always think, when I visit the CWG cemeteries, that it is good that the headstones are not in the shape of a cross (as they are at the American cemetery), but have very personal words and memories. We will go, here in Normandy, wearing our poppies, to the cemetery nearby where three Welsh soldiers are buried, even though the November ceremony is really just for the First World War here. Living here is a constant reminder of how much was sacrificed, in what I will always believe was a just cause, in 1944.