Remembrance Day

I don't like Remembrance Day.

It's not that I don't want to remember. It's that I wish I didn't have to remember.

To be more precise, I wish there was nothing to remember period.

I hate war. It's stupid and senseless and it is always the good people, the innocent people, who suffer the most. I wish, when bad people want to do bad things, people would just say no. I wish they would refuse to do evil things, refuse to fight for wrong, refuse to go to war.

Of course humans don't work that way. Most don't, at least. There are some anthropological accounts of pacifistic societies and there are some groups like the Amish who consistently shun war. Sadly those are the exceptions. Most societies - most people - aren't that evolved.

Still, I hope for the best, and I certainly pray there will never be anything like the two World Wars we've already seen. I didn't live through them, but I have enough of an imagination and have read and heard enough that I feel more acquainted with their horrors than I'd like. And I don't need a special day to remember; unfortunately I remember often.

So while I'm incredibly grateful for the peaceful world I live in, I feel terribly for those who paid the ultimate price and never got to benefit from the world their sacrifices made possible. I remember them ... but I wish so hard that I didn't have to.