Peace has to be learned
Apparently that great orator (!) Sylvester Stallone once said:
"I could start a war in 30 seconds. But
some countries spend 100 years trying to find peace. Just like good
manners, peace has to be learned."
I don't know if this was in a role for a film, or as Sylvester Stallone, but on today, Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, call it what you will, it's a thought worth thinking about:
Peace has to be learned
And sadly, with its thirst for power - dressed up as patriotism, or as religious fervour, or any other name it is given to justify it - this world (or rather the people within it) needs to learn peace.
I will say no more. I don't have the skill with words. Many people all over the "blogosphere" will be trying to put into words their thoughts on this portentous day, 100 years after the First World War, the war that was heralded as "the war to end all wars", but which became the war after which there has never actually been peace throughout the world...
I will simply leave you with this most moving of songs and videos, by the late Clifford T Ward. It is beautiful, and leaves me weeping everytime I listen to it. Please take 5 minutes to click on the link, to listen to this wonderful song...and to remember.
A DAY TO MYSELF
Clifford T Ward
It's all so different now
From just a few weeks ago
When April was about to smile on England
And I had to go
So here I am again
Far from where the blackbird sings
And lanes I love to walk along
Lost in my thoughts
And what of you my love
Though you're so far away
Yet so close to me in all I do and see
And so on my day off
I could have chosen monuments
Historic chateaux, palaces
Or finding ways of improving my French
Instead I wandered out alone
Here where woods and fields abound
And in a quiet corner found the resting place
Of English soldiers killed in war
And what of them my love
Who died so far from home
No last farewell kiss
All that remains is this
It makes me so ashamed to feel alone
Whatever would they think of me
For I shall see my love again
It's all so different now
From those few years ago
When April smiled so sweetly still
And they had to go
From just a few weeks ago
When April was about to smile on England
And I had to go
So here I am again
Far from where the blackbird sings
And lanes I love to walk along
Lost in my thoughts
And what of you my love
Though you're so far away
Yet so close to me in all I do and see
And so on my day off
I could have chosen monuments
Historic chateaux, palaces
Or finding ways of improving my French
Instead I wandered out alone
Here where woods and fields abound
And in a quiet corner found the resting place
Of English soldiers killed in war
And what of them my love
Who died so far from home
No last farewell kiss
All that remains is this
It makes me so ashamed to feel alone
Whatever would they think of me
For I shall see my love again
It's all so different now
From those few years ago
When April smiled so sweetly still
And they had to go
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