{"id":4035,"date":"2015-11-11T06:11:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T14:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=4035"},"modified":"2015-11-11T06:11:50","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T14:11:50","slug":"one-brother-at-sea-11112015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=4035","title":{"rendered":"One Brother \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [11\/11\/2015]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"She_knows_what_freedom_really_means_1942_1_\"<\/a>One brother wore blue
\nOne brother wore grey
\nOne brother he went
\nAnd the other one stayed
\nOne brother is here
\nOne brother is there
\nWhere shall I go lord and what colours shall I wear?<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen this day come and go in all weathers, but even with the fog lying on us like a thick white blanket; it still doesn\u2019t feel right that it isn\u2019t raining. It was, as I have said many times, always raining, always mud slicking the shiny patent of my good dress shoes. Always wishing I had boots or gloves.<\/p>\n

Back then I cried because it was expected of me, because everyone else was crying, because I knew instinctively that the occasion was sad and serious. I was more interested in being seen in my pretty party shoes than in understanding what was going on, but as I got older I came to understand more than I wished. Except why, I never could understand why<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I still do not understand why. I used to think that I would understand the necessity and the concept of war when I got older, but I still do not. I don\u2019t think I ever will, I think perhaps I do not want to.<\/p>\n

And if that makes me a pacifist, perhaps that is my fate.<\/p>\n

I will never understand humankind\u2019s apparent need to destroy all of humanity in the desperate drive to lay claim to some kind of pride. Some kind of an illusion, or an invisible line on the map. If you were to fly above the world you would not see any boundaries etched into the earth, but you would see the devastation that fighting for them has caused.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what this day is about. I would give so much for the days of mud-slicked ground and carefully carved memorials to be behind us, but that doesn\u2019t mean that I ever forget how lucky I am to have had my freedom fought for and won, very hard won, and I \u2013 for one \u2013 do not believe that they sleep. That faith has been so long broken I don\u2019t quite see how they could do so. Every bombing, every innocent life taken, disturbs their rest further. They deserve so much more than one day, and yet it seems sometimes that 24 hours is all we see fit to give them, and even that is not what it once was.<\/p>\n

The guns are no longer silent and if we are honest with ourselves it has been many many years since they ever were. There are countries where larks no longer fly at all, let alone have their song heard amongst the blasts under their wings.<\/p>\n

And I still remain that little girl, clutching her grandmother\u2019s hand in her black patent party shoes, and later on in a girl guides\u2019 dress blues, wondering \u2026why<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Because the ones who call the shots
\nWon\u2019t be among the dead and lame
\nAnd at each and of the rifle..
\nWe\u2019re the same\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One brother wore blue One brother wore grey One brother he went And the other one stayed One brother is here One brother is there Where shall I go lord and what colours shall I wear? I\u2019ve seen this day … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,80,17,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-northern-exposure-2015","category-reflections-below-the-waterline","category-summer-contracts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-135","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4038,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035\/revisions\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}