November 11 - Remembrance Day

A bleak autumn picture for remembrance day, the day when England mourns the dead soldiers of the two great world wars and the countless other little ones that we have been involved.

Funny thing about memory is that we hardly remember things at all. I could not remember the tree full of leaves like it is in the title picture if the picture were not there.

I always feel very ambivalent about remembrance day, perhaps everyone does.

It seems right to remember the poor young men who were killed (and the ones that they themselves killed on the other side), but the sentiments we hear rolled out on days like this seem so completely false. "Their name liveth for evermore" it says on the memorial. Yet we know it's not true. Can we name one person who was killed in the hundred years war? Even, only 150 years ago, the Crimean War? There certainly must have been plenty. And I certainly can't think of one. It seems to me that, in truth, people love wars. The thought of them is exciting, they "stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood". If people didn't like wars why would we have them? For wars, I think, there is no such thing as bad publicity. That's why remembrance days fills me with unease.

The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918. That is the time that is remembered, the time and day that the first world war came to an end. Strangely enough I have a sort of direct connection to it. My father fought in the first world war and wrote about it in a couple of books. On that day in 1918, aged about twenty, he was on leave in England, expecting to go back to fight in the next few days. He was so keyed up to fight that his first reaction to the news was disappointment. And the next bewilderment. I too am bewildered by Remembrance day.

Tomorrow back to oak trees and a look at how our tree has changed over the past three weeks. Not long till it is bare now. And not long till it is spring again either. Peace follows war just as surely as spring follows autumn and it will happen to the nasty little wars we are fighting at the moment. Let's hope it comes soon.
Finally a picture of thorns in the rain.