Anzac Day has passed for another year. I heard a comment, without giving credit to the wrong person I think it was Victorian Governor Chernov, that said 'Anzac Day is a precious day', isn't that a wonderful statement?
It troubles me though that we spend a few hours in quiet dignity and contemplation observing this 'precious' day but then it's 'open the shops' or 'let's get to the movies' or whatever else we can find to do for 'fun'. We seem so incapable of simply taking one 24 hour period and stopping to contemplate, to honor to take in what it's all about.
As a pacifist I went through my years of being hostile and dismissive about Anzac Day.Then one day i heard the author Patsy Adam-Smith talking about why she wrote her book 'The Anzacs' and I realised how important it all was. It is a commemoration of the spirit of those people who did go and fight and kill and represent the rest of us but the doing of that reminds us of the futility of war and the need for peace. Heavens above Gallipoli was a failure, a loss if you will and we are great friends with the country we fought on those fields - what could be more of a testament to how ludicrous war is? Those wonderful words of Kamal Ataturk about the sons of Australian mothers being Turkey's sons also is further testament.
So let's honor those people, this day, honor all of us who remain and most of all honor peace by living peacefully for that one day of the year.
BE!
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