Remembrance

[poliphilo]

 We sit my mother down in front of the Act of Remembrance at the Cenotaph but I don't think she knows what she's watching. I drift in and out of the room, allowing my nerves to be twanged by what I 'm mean-spirited enough to think of as the National Festival of Self Pity. Next year, perhaps, I'll manage to be more zen about it all

This story came back to me.

Two monks arrive at a river to find a woman waiting at the brink wondering how she's going to get over. One of them hoists her on his shoulders and carries her across.

A hour later- several miles down the road- the other monk turns to him and says, "I can't believe, you just did that. What about your vows? You're not supposed to have anything to do with women."

And the other says. "Oh, that woman. I'd forgotten. I left her behind on the bank, but I see you're still carrying her."

Comments

[basefinder]

Fascinating story -- it can be adapted to so many situations!

[poliphilo]

Yes. :)

[sorenr]

Perhaps it's easier to see Armistice Day as a remembrance of the absurdity of war when you come from a country that was neutral during the war. For Denmark it's never a "national" moment - it can be more abstract, perhaps. More about war in general.

(A number of Danes DID fight in WWI since part of present-day Denmark was at the time part of Germany. But it's not part of our national narrative - though perhaps it ought to be? The only part of Denmark that took part in WWI was on the losing side. We tend to forget... Just as I grew up thinking Denmark won WWII since Germany lost - and I think we can all agree Denmark didn't ACTUALLY win that war...)

[poliphilo]

The British are obsessed with the two World Wars- or, at least, the older generations of us are- and especially with such events of the second as can be portrayed as especially heroic- Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, the London Blitz. I think it's time to move on...

[sorenr]

The WWII occupation is still somehow present in in the Danish communal mind but kind of in the background, and people aged 65 and below tend to think Berlin is a cool and vibrant destination for weekends away, rather than anything else...

Our last national heroics happened when the Prussians took Dybbøl in 1864... A carnage that - in modern tellings of it - was completely avoidable and only fuelled by nationalist pride that ended up costing us 1/3 of the Danish mainland.

WWII still looms large, though, even in contemporary politics. It's absurd. Right-wing nationalists in parliament compare their endeavours to rid this country of Muslims with the resistance during the Nazi occupation... I'm sure I won't need to spell out my flings about that.

[poliphilo]

So persecuting a minority equates to resisting an occupying army. Hmmm...

There's a lot of WWII imagery swirling round the issue of Brexit. Winston Churchill with his cigar, white cliffs of Dover, all that sort of thing.