Exmoor
The diary of a soldier fighting in the trenches of France realised thousands more at auction in the UK on 7 March 2007. In an interview with the BBC, a member of the family, descended from the soldier, stated that the expected value of the diary had been measured in hundreds of pounds, not thousands.
On this bright spring morning, this radio news item, which included a short passage from the diary, cast a shadow, stretching back nearly 100 years. It described graphically the horrors of fighting in the trenches. Young men pitted against young men, only different from each other in that they were born and grew up geographically in a different country. Indeed, the truth of war is that the bodies of these young men were pitted against explosives and hard metal for which no human bodies were ever designed.
As I gaze across the sunny valley to Dunkery Beacon, from my vantage point just above Nutcombe Bottom, which is a pleasant picnic and beauty spot near to the ancient village of Dunster in Somerset, UK, I’m both grateful to these men and saddened that so many of them lost so much.
I recollect reading the poetry written by some of the First World War poets. The most powerful message they seemed to send was that they didn’t want to be there fighting, killing and putting their own lives in danger. Even the songs which are so well remembered, from the Second World War, convey the same emotion. The words talk about blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover, if only we can wait and see. It seems, that the most important thing that people feel about war is the desire to be free from it.
But the generations move on and there are always new challenges to occupy our minds and emotions. Sadly there are also new wars but, for most of us in the West, these are far away. Even the appalling horrors of terrorism, so far at least, represent only a one in a million risk for most of us.
However, just because the wars are so far away from most of us in the West, does not make them any the less terrible. Indeed, the fact that, as the years roll by, we live in a much more advanced and integrated world, should surely reduce the risk of war to everybody.
Killing human beings is such a horrible thing to do and raises the question as to why anybody on this beautiful earth should want to indulge in such a terrible activity? It seems completely incomprehensible.
Perhaps we as a species need to put more resources into a quest to bring an end to all wars. Perhaps the only war we need to declare is a war on war!
Wars can be prevented by solving the problems that cause them. Let’s take our world’s resources which are so plentiful and apply them more powerfully to the reasons why people think they are justified to go to war.
Surely we can find solutions for the world’s problems that don’t require people to blow up other people. Surely we are intelligent enough for that.
Bye for now
Rob
