Armistice Day

"You can tell a true war story by the way it never seems to end. Not then, not ever.  ~ Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

I think I said most of what I wanted to say in last year's Armistice Day entry, but I thought, beyond decrying war, beyond the quiet offer of support to the individual soldier, the sad necessity of the army, I wanted to say something about the non-finality of a war.

Tim O'Brien stated it better than I (or anyone really) ever could. Today we're 'celebrating' Armistice Day; the end of the war To End All Wars. Surprisingly, the First World War was not the end of war on this good green earth. It was also, like most wars, never ending in and of itself. An Armistice was signed, yes. Armistices do not stop wars. They certainly do not stop memories.

In a couple of sentences, here is the reason why I do what I do at the DBC: Wars happen. People are greatly and drastically affected. Some of them never leave the war, even if they shuffle back onto a troop train, drop off their uniform, and physically return to a normal life. It's just not that easy, sometimes.

War is huge. It's Hell and it's terrifying and it's fun and it's grotesque and even sometimes beautiful. It's sad. It's devastating. And more than anything else, it's so big and so wide in scope that we have no idea how to begin to understand it, and yet we use it so frequently. But it is not an event that simply starts and ends like a highschool football game, lights off at 11. It's a forever thing for the people involved. It never seems to end, not then, not ever.

We should be careful with it. We should try to know and understand it. We should hesitate before ever taking that step forward into it, because one step in and we're up to our knees in it.

So please, take a moment today, think a little about the men and women around you, the soldiers, the non combatants and VADs, the families of veterans. That's what the day is for. I have no answers as to what stops war from happening, except giving it the thought and gravity that something so huge and all encompassing deserves.