Remembrance Day (Memorial Day) Reflections

Hi.
I'm Robert E Kreig and I make stuff up.
Today, as I sit and write this, it is Remembrance Day (11th November 2023: Australian time).
For me, at the moment, it seems rather counter-productive to try and consider our fallen warriors who fought for freedom, liberty and the right to live only to see brutal conflict, oppression and injustice continue to parade across our television screens on the evening news.
Unfortunately, as I get older, I have come to realise that this is life and this is how it always has been and will be.
I used to watch the parades and always endeavoured to attend the dawn services on ANZAC Day, to show my respect and hope the likes of what took so many young lives wouldn't occur again. But, it seems inevitable that mankind will always fall into the trap where rich men, dictators, religious ideologists and their political puppets will call for others to die in their place.
I know it's always more complicated than that, but it still sucks, nevertheless.
As more wrinkles spread over my skin, I've come to a place where escapism is my best option rather than trying to observe the ceremonies and parades.
Don't get me wrong. I still respect the fallen warriors, but I can't listen to the incessant waffling of men in suits reading from their well written speeches, penned by their assistants, before laying a elegant wreath at the foot of a memorial where they pose for all the cameras, illuminated by the electric storm of flash bulbs emitting from devices all around.
As I get older, Remembrance Day makes me angry.
The meaning of it has passed away.
It appears that the world has ignored it, forgotten what pain we endured after the Great War and revisited in WW2. Instead, conflict ensues, politicians continue to make their speeches and pose for the cameras before returning to their offices to discuss the next conflict.
When will we learn?
Do we ever learn?
I wonder if the fallen ever have the chance to look upon us and see what we've become. If they can see how far we've progressed. If they question whether we have even progressed at all.
So, as my bones ache and I think about remembrance day, I prepare to escape.
Today, this remembrance day, I choose to escape into words.
I write.
I read.
I escape.
Until next time...
All the best and happy reading,
Robert.