…answers from questions years old…an interview with a reporter…Why do we need to remember? Remembrance…what does it mean?…and this year it has become a personal resolve to answer.
Remembrance Day – this one day, that for many, they become aware of time – 11:00 AM – time to remember all who served beyond self…greater than the one…all giving…for all persons. Its tradition…its respect…its honour…its blood…all are kin this day. Perhaps out of fashion words but with peace, after the fight, compassion…the will to do better things. Words not out of fashion but reserved for those whose quiet remembrances are anything but…the hurt still there but we can do better. Leadership, it is true, cannot be learned but, what we have within ourselves can be polished…we really need to listen…there are many voices.
For one like myself Remembrance is not this one day – this one time – once a year…it is all days…each sacrifice of self our footsteps for tomorrow. Maybe we could try to build on that remembrance? Something beyond self for all others….Thank you to all veterans…and to all those who have given their voices to their causes. We can thank a veteran for that freedom…every day.
For the Fallen
(The fourth stanza, Laurence Binyon, September 1914)
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Images by Paul Ferguson
Cavanaugh. Canadian Sailor. Age 19. Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery. September 2009.Yu Shu Hang. A Good Reputation Endures Forever. Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, Belgium. September 2009.L. Wilson, 6 Nations. Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France. September 2010.An evening visitor to the Menin Gate Memorial. Ypres, Belgium. September 2017.Known To Be Buried In This Cemetery, Hedge Row Trench Cemetery, Belgium. September 2017.Australian Jewish Soldier. Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium. September 2009.100 Days 100 Years, Menin Gate Memorial wreaths. Ypres, Belgium. August 2018.Two Newfoundland Soldiers. Y Ravine Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France. September 2018.Maori soldier Waata Taukamo. Ramparts Cemetery, Lille Gate, Ypres, Belgium. September 2016.Tomoki Gyotoku. Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France. September 2010.Sister Cole. Wimereux Communal Cemetery, France. September 2010.Dorset Regiment Memorial, Valletta, Malta. March 2011.The Devonshires Hold It Still, Somme, France. September 2006.Memorial at Lochnagar Crater, Somme, France. September 2006.Tower Hill Memorial, London, England. September 2012.Devi Singh, Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, Ypres, Belgium. September 2005.Follower Babu. Brookwood Cemetery, England. September 2010.On Extended Mission. Brookwood Cemetery, England. September 2010.Canadian Corps of Firefighters. Brookwood Cemetery, England. September 2010.Homage to Great War survivors. Fragment from St. Martin’s Cathedral, Ypres. September 2009.The golden eagle atop the Malta Memorial. Floriana, Malta. March 2011.
