Address
Today we remember. In parts of this town, in cities and villages and quiet corners of cemeteries, people will stand with their wraths to lay them on memorials or gravestones.
As they stand in silence for two long minutes they will look at the names. Names that were the flower of youth in that place. On some there are hundreds, on others just a few, but each tells the story of a generation decimated, a large portion from city, town or village.
And those who stand before those names holding their wreaths, do not look with envy or pride. It is not a celebration nor a commemoration of victory.
They look with sadness. Their eyes moist with the tears for those names.
One of the worst things they did as human beings was to sacrifice their children to the guns, to the gods of shells and machine guns and trenches.
They look at the names that are now a hundred years old.
In that worst of wars, no one can stand up and say, ‘It was a war for freedom - or a war for justice - or a war to liberate.. No one can make an excuse for that war, no one is able to justify it.
And we remember them and that war of sacrifice by wearing a poppy for them.
That war and those poppies are a memorial like no other in any other time or any other place. It was a war like no other war in any time or any place.
We wear our poppies to remember that terrible war and the hundreds of thousands who perished in it.
And we call it the great war - but it was not great - a war fought for all the wrong reasons.
Our poppy is not a statement that says no more war; it has no political implication, it is simply a statement of sadness and regret - it is a passive memorial to those who died in that great war.
Wearing the poppy, has not stopped a single war since - and we do think of those who have died since when we wear that great war poppy
There have been wars in every generation - and still people have died and we wear a poppy - most have died fighting for a cause - we like to think
It is also a means to an end because the poppy also raises money to care for those who have been injured in wars or suffered because of their military service.
All conflicts in this modern era end in the same way - not in a victory but in a conference - usually called a peace conference.
Men and women who fight in wars have to behave differently’
Carl Jung said that there is a shadow side to our true selves - it is dark and it is evil. We learn in our normal lives to dominate that shadow within us. But when it is released and allowed to dominate, our better judgement, our caring sides are suppressed, and destruction and chaos comes into the world.
This dark and evil side of humankind thrives on violence, then one group want what another group possesses - or one group cannot tolerate the presence of another group amongst them - either because they are of a different race, or a different culture, or a different religion, or a different family.
There is an inability to compromise or negotiate or accept - there is a distrust of difference.
In the end that evil shadow has to be suppressed.
- in the end human beings have to learn to accept one another again - but it can leave smouldering embers that are difficult to extinguish fully.
It is difficult to envision a time when we will not have wars being fought somewhere on this earth. And when there is a war, the heads and hearts of people, especially young people turn dark and they want to join - sometimes simply for the thrill of adventure, sometimes because they believe they have a cause worth fighting for - or to right a wrong.
Young people feel invincible - they feel indestructible; they are a long way from worrying about death.
So this is the dark side of human nature - that reflects a spirit that is capable of anger and aggression and hostility. That is able to fight - not to defend itself - but to attack and destroy.
It is a dark shadow that dehumanises those it opposes - no longer sees them as fellow beings - only as an enemy, only as an obstruction to victory.
It creates a nature based on mistrust, a society based on preparing bigger weapons, better weapons, more efficient weapons, pursuing the science of destruction with huge resources.
But then there is the other side Above that dark aggressive side, there is a compassionate side, the white side of humanity. This is the side of human nature that feels called to heal, to make peace, to compromise and to accommodate change, to grow and to build up.
Without this side of our nature, wars would go on forever, there would never be peace.
We could say that this is the religious or spiritual side of human nature.
I know that throughout history religions have failed to develop the compassionate caring side of humanity but have followed an aggressive dark side, persecuting and crusading.
And yet even within the darkest days of religious strive there were the people of light, the white ones, carrying a torch - not to scorch and burn the earth but to lead the way to better things, higher things.
Human nature is so fragile - how quickly and how easily it is inspired to go to war and fight, how quickly and how easily it is inspired to become intolerant, how easy it is to release that dark side.
Often we ask, how can this happen ? How can people be so easily turned away from what is good and noble and right ?
It is so easy because each one has that capacity to follow one side or the other. We can flip between hate and love, aggression and compassin
On an individual scale, we can become angry - and sometimes aggressive. On an individual scale we can like or dislike another person or group of people -
But on a spiritual scale we can overcome those feelings; we can call up the white side of our natures. We can respond to the urging of our conscience - and see that what we think is not actually good or or right.
As individuals we can have a level of control that the collective dark masses do not.
I often think we live in two worlds. We have a presence in the physical world - the material world and we are buffeted by its problems and caressed by its benevolence. We have to survive in it.
And all we have to survive with is this frail body and the vast internal world of our inner being.
The challenge for us, the challenge for all is to create harmony of spirit that will always overcome the evil side of human nature - and to me it starts with creating harmony in that inner world.
Being able to overcome anger and prejudice. Being able to deal with a sense of inadequacy or weakness or persecution or non acceptance.
To me this is the true role of religion - to help us on a journey through our inner worlds to reach those higher realms of love and understanding and tolerance - and acceptance of who we are - and that we have a place in the world that has value.
All religions began with this purpose - but the larger they became the more they focussed on the outer world and their part in it.
If only we practiced the religion of the inner world and made it strong, then the outer world would be slowly changed and turned away from darkness and wars.
Then we would wear our poppies only as reminders of the horrors we are capable of.
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