11/11. Veterans Day. Flanders Fields.

Some of you may know that I majored in history. I also know very few people personally who have served in the armed forces. This gives me a unique/completely sham view of what Veteran's Day really means. But I'm still going to try because I know that Veteran's Day means a lot of things to a lot of people. And it means very important things in ways that maybe we don't always think about.

As I drove in my town today, I saw American flags lining the street and realized what they were for. When I realized it was Veteran's Day, a song came to mind. A musical setting of the post-WWI (Great War) poem written by John McRae, In Flander's Fields. There are many musical adaptations of this poem, unsurprising because it is so significant and poignant and important. However, I prefer the Paul Aitken version because it is as haunting as McRae's words.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Upon the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields

Background

Veteran's Day itself is on 11/11, because the Treaty of Versailles was signed on that day in 1918, the main treaty that ended The Great War. And it is in the context of this war that Flanders Fields was written by John McRae. 

John McRae was a soldier in The Great War from Canada, he acted as a surgeon and is said to have served as a chaplain over his friend's funeral before writing this poem. Poppies grew during and after the war in many of the fields which were used for fighting. They have since become a symbol for wartime remembrance, perhaps partially because of this poem. 

I call it The Great War, because that is the context that this poem was written in, even though we now refer to it as World War I. The idea was that this was the most terrible war that had been. Perhaps even the most terrible thing that had been. Because of a rapid increase in military technology, the ways in which death could be administered were multiplied exponentially. The loss was staggering, the psychological effects were haunting. We saw harsh realism, modernism, surrealism; artistic trends that highlighted the worst of humanity and the scramble of the human race to make sense of it. And I think this song and poem capture that trend, that scramble, that pain. 

What I'm trying to say 

We may no longer be fighting The Great War, but that doesn't mean that the wars that are still being fought (without trying to be political we must admit that our armed forces are involved in many war-like situations) aren't as or more traumatizing to many of those who participate in them. This must be realized, accepted, and highly respected by those of us who know nothing of those difficulties. 

We also may no longer be fighting for our actual freedoms. Those were won long ago, maybe even longer ago than you would like to think. However, though our armed forces may not be fighting any longer for our personal freedoms, you had better believe they are fighting for someone's freedoms. And that, I believe, is an even nobler cause. They fight so that this girl can go to school, so others can create their own governments, and so that people don't have to live in fear. They fight for those who can't always fight for themselves. 

And I'm so grateful. Because they are doing what I wish I could do if I had the courage, or the strength. 

Happy Veterans Day.