I can’t believe it is 10 days since my last entry. Time passes by very swiftly and to quote John Simpson in ‘The 5-minute Interview’ in today’s Independent (couldn’t get a Guardian, grr) - “Life is appallingly short and we mustn’t waste time on pointless, stupid things.”
This got me to thinking about tomorrow’s date July 1st, a day when, in 1916, time stopped forever for thousands of young men as they perished in No Man’s Land on the first day of the battle of the Somme. 19,240 were killed and 35,493 wounded and that was just our side. My heart goes out to those who gave their lives on both sides as this terrible, pointless and wasteful carnage was to carry on until 17th November of the same year.
So on Saturday 1st July 2006, take time to remember, just for a minute, the events of Saturday 1st July 1916. When you are out shopping, laughing with your family, watching football or tennis or just sitting in the sunshine in your garden, be glad of your freedom and just say a quiet thankyou.
“When you go home,
tell them of me and say,
For your tomorrow,
I gave my today.”
John Maxwell Edmonds (1875 -1958)
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