Today is Armistice Day. World War I ended on this day 95 years ago. We remember the soldiers from this war and all the other wars who did not grow old, who did not come home.
We arrived at Dapto Mall at 11 o’clock in the morning right at the start of the remembrance minute. Everybody stopped in their tracks for the remembrance. Where Peter and I stood there was a flower-shop nearby. Later on I started taking pictures of the beautiful flowers. The sales-woman approached me asking whether she could do anything for me.I said I’d just like to take some pictures of the flowers. And the woman let me do this and went on with her work sorting out and arranging flowers for display.
The flower shop is right in the middle of the walkway. In the shop on the other side I noticed a lot of For Sale signs and took pictures.
Apparently the Post Shop provides a service for travellers. And last but not least I noticed a display to entice people to buy something for their babies.
Armistice means: A state of peace agreed to between opponents so they can discuss peace terms.
Maybe ninety-five years ago people were hoping that this had been the war to end all wars. How many people have been sent to war since then? Why cannot people live in peace everywhere in every country?
Even without wars, how many people are there who loose their lives in natural disasters? Thinking of the mass casualties after super typhoon Haiyan swept the Philippines last Friday, I feel very weepy. So many people died, and so many people lost everything and need an awful lot of help just to survive. The pictures of devastation are horrendous. All the countries and agencies who are in a position to organise some kind of help work none stop to do just this right now. This is wonderful that there are people in this world to give selflessly of their expertise and time not matter what the difficulties. Sometimes they give their lives so that others can live, same as all the soldiers who are remembered today. We should never forget their sacrifice.
AuntyUta 
We watched the Armistice Day Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, on TV. There were more than 10,000 people taking part in the march past – and this was followed by the News with the sad announcement that more than 10,000 people had been killed in the Philippines. It made us realise what 10,000 people means.
We celebrate holidays like these to commemorate the end of wars, the gain of our independence, to remember those who gave up their lives. But we seem not to learn the lessons of war: that no one wins in a war, any war.
We saw the horrendous pictures too. It’s such a tragedy.
Isn’t the disaster in the Philippines just too hard to even comprehend? Even looking at the video footage I find I can’t calculate what I’m seeing. It is heartbreaking on every possible level. I love the tradition of stopping for the remembrance minute. We don’t do that here in the United States, and I think it’s a loss. There’s something really wonderful about everyone stopping at one time and being grateful and mindful of the cost of being free. This is such a beautifully sensitive post, Uta. ox
Thank you,for your comments, Cat, Mary-Ann, and Debra.
Dear Aunty Uta, I liked your post with the selection of photos. It shows the modern reality. People go to shopping centres and not so much to churches to connect with others. When we came to Australia we learnt quickly that people stopped in the street, or downed tools, to remember the men and women who lost their lives in the service for their country. That was new to us.
You saw, perhaps unconsciously, the connection between the beauty of the flowers and the posters encouraging travel to distant countries. We have to look at beautiful things and we have to connect with others in another way than making war with them. It is said “travel widens the horizon”, and that is true. As you see and learn about other countries you loose the fear of “the others”. It is tragic that the young people of the generations before us did not learn that the countries they were fighting could have been their friends, as they today are. The young people of today take up travelling and come back with wonderful stories that encourage them to do it again.
Where a hundred years ago were posters that encouraged young man to join the army there are now posters to encourage young, and older people, to travel to the very same countries. Cynics always say, people don’t learn anything. Perhaps they have learnt something and you picked that up in your photos. Thanks for pointing this out.
It’s interesting, Berlioz, that you’ve seen as connection in the photos. Thank you very much for this! 🙂