Misc

Armistice 17

There’s a lot of posts about armistice day and remembrance out there, I don’t think I need to remind anybody yet one more time about the importance of it.

I’m on duty at the moment, which means I’ve been in work a couple of times over the weekend and I pretty much have to stay on base for a week. Everyone takes a turn, just means I spend a lot of time here in the barrack block and I do a lot of thinking; so I’ve been thinking all day about what to say on the subject.

From a social media perspective, I think it’s very, very easy to post ‘prayers for’ and ‘respect to’ posts every time there’s a tragedy or a marked public holiday/event. If those posts come from the heart, if you genuinely take the time to think about the sacrifices that heroes have made and great people we’ve lost, that’s great.

Personally; I won’t lie I didn’t even buy my poppy until yesterday, I didn’t spend a long time pausing at 11am today to be silent either. I think about people who’ve been lost and those who’ve lost a bit of themselves near enough every single day. I can’t even ‘take credit’ or claim that’s a conscious effort it just pops in to my brain without trying. Makes my heart weigh pretty heavy truth be told.

Like to use this post here to share a video I watched on Soldier Systems Daily from Sitka. As some context to something well known in popular culture, this is a story somewhat akin to that told in American Sniper. However there’s no actors here, just the man himself, his tale and his reality. He might be American but his story is no doubt very, very similar to that experienced by so many thousands upon thousands more across the globe.

The internet stops at your screen. I think a few too many people can forget that, hit post and think they’ve done something; I’ve been guilty of it and I reckon if we’re honest we likely all have been at some point. So if you want to, if you can, if the opportunity is there or you can make the opportunity, at the very least say a kind word to any veteran or service person who’s been there, done that. Of course not just during WW2, but Korea, The Falklands, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq (at various times), Syria, the Balkans… and the list goes on and on. There are people who need help all of the time.

Watch, absorb, contemplate, try and genuinely be as grateful as you can manage to for each day.

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