Emotional Tightropes and Acts of Rememberance

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 03 November 2007 12:35:31

At the moment time management and emotion management are a vital part of life and actually quite closely interlinked. I understand the need for flexibility and "being an adult", but the more I can build in a schedule and prepare for the ups and downs of life in advance the better chance I actually have of surviving "life".

So it is that today I built buying my poppie into my trip to the shops. Whilst I nearly lost it in the butter aisle it was a strategie that worked.

Now at this point I better explain. Firstly, why a pacifist thinks buying a red poppie is so important. Well my answer is that it is an act of rememberance. An act of remembering "Never Again!" An act of remembering the people, many of them young men and women who for economic and social reasons rather than simply aspirational joined and continue to join the armed services and who lose their lives or are injured because of the decisions of governments and dictators far removed from themselves. An act of rememberance for the civillians who have and are losing their lives and homes because of war.

But why red and not white? Well I believe, particularly whilst continuing governments take the policies they do which don't fully benefit veterans and continue to send young men and women to war, that the Royal British Legion has a valuable role to play. That is not to say that I agree with everything The Legion promotes but it is to say I believe the job they do needs to be done by somebody, just as the work the peace organisations such as CND and Fellowship of Reconciliation do needs to be done.

Finally a personal reason for remembering and buying a red not a white poppy. I don't visit Suffolk now, I haven't done since my mum's funeral - it's just got too many memories - and as such I don't visit my grandma's grave. However, for me, buying a poppy is a yearly ritual which takes on the same significance of laying flowers on her grave and indeed pausing to remember my grandfather.
My grandmother was a staunch supporter of The Royal British Legion, and in her village organised the Poppy Day Collection for many years. For 11 months a year my grandparents pretty much operated open house but from early October to Armistice Day they were busy.

My grandfather was a career serviceman in the Navy and both he and my grandma had lived through and served in the Second World War, losing relatives and friends. Rememberance day meant a great deal to them and so in turn some of that has been transferred to me. As such I will continue to buy and wear my red poppie with pride, whatever others may choose to associate with this symbol.