Christmas

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Well, another Christmas day has passed, and I'm suitably over-fed and frankly buggered, the exertions and ancillary distractions of this very particular day of the year having now taken their customary toll. However, the thought that struck me first thing this morning, was the Christmas Day truce in 1914; a wholly spontaneous cessation of hostilities that occurred, not just at Christmas, but the following week, at New Year. Separated from each other by a mere two hundred feet of shell-pocked land, the opposing forces sang and played; applauding each other in turn, revelling in the spirit of the season; only to return to hostilities as soon as the moment passed. Humanity in the moment, crushed underfoot by the powers-that-be: it is ever thus. The saddest reflection for me is that my cousin Tom didn't even get to experience those brief moments of sanity amidst the carnage: he had already been killed by then in, the First Battle of Ypres. The insanity of it all still beggars belief...

Comments

  1. Anonymous26 December 2024 at 12:11

    Not if you look at the history of monarchs & kingdoms mate!
    ATB
    Joe

    ReplyDelete

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