R. I. P.

Today we rightly paid respects to those that have fallen in the service of their country. This year, we are officially allowed to remember some put to death by their own comrades, supposedly for cowardice in the face of the enemy but now officially pardoned.

The service at the Cenotaph was dignified and moving. Last night's Royal Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall was truly moving. 109 year-old westcountryman Harry Patch was amazing.

While remembering all those of both 'sides' who died in two terrible world wars and in the countless conflicts since (including our two current 'theatres' of war), we should contemplate how we humans can learn to resolve our differences in some other way. We must avoid glorifying war.

War is obscene. It appears to bring out the best and the worst in mankind. The best shows in personal courage, nobility, comradeship, loyalty and sacrifice and in the unification of society. The worst is seen in man's inhumanity to man and his incredible inventiveness when it comes to finding new, more efficient and more terrible ways to do the business of killing.

War tears families apart, it ravages societies, it destroys cultures, it pollutes our already troubled world and it dismembers and maims individuals caught up in its horrendous fury.

Let us pray for all the souls torn from their bodies by war, for all those whose lives or bodies have been damaged by war and for a better mankind that ceases to do war.