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Monday 25 May 2009

Grief - the universal & terrible cost of war

I posted a picture some time ago of the the unveiling of a memorial in a small town near Berlin. A couple of days ago I got a comment from Wolfgang, a German guy, who wrote,
We should remember together. Let us go to their graves and let us remember hand in hand. Let us show them that their death was not in vain. Let us promise them "Never again."
Following the posting of this admirable sentiment I was prompted to look for a photograph I bought recently on ebay for 99p.



Here again is the universality of remembrance, the grieving mother, wife or child. Which is she? Probably the young wife, a beautiful and elegant woman standing in grief by the grave of her man. Forgotten lives, broken lives, a moment of intimacy, of engagement with the terrible and pointless cost of war. No glory here.

Such an extraordinary image - so humbling

This lady is German, but she could be any wife of any nation in any age. Just change the fashion, the shape of the headstone - always the grief and the loss are the same.

Never again? Sadly not. As I write two young Brits killed in Afghanistan and a couple of weeks ago 150 civilians slaughtered, including many children, by our American allies. @Collateral Damage' in bastardised american English. I guess they died
'For Freedom'.

Not much good being Free when you're dead.

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