Weapons of war

Hi Folks,
Over the bank holiday weekend, we visited one of our local historical armaments - Fort Nelson - to see re-enactments from one of the Charles' era's (I'm afraid I forget which one!). It was interesting to walk around the fort, walking down the tunnels and getting a feeling for the place.

In the courtyard of the grounds there was a large undercover display of military equipment of the large variety, a whole series of canons, tanks etc. Quite an impressive array.

As I was walking around reading some of the details about the exhibits, whilst pushing my little one in his pushchair, I was overcome with an immense feeling of sadness & melancholy (for want of a better description), as the thought occurred to me, that these actual machines, tanks, anti-aircraft missiles, etc., had been used by real people - many of whom may not actually be around today, due to their having been killed in action, by whoever. These pieces of cold, unfriendly metal, could have been the last things some of these people saw in their last moments.

Needless to say I headed out rather quickly from the display, feeling quite agitated for the rest of the day, with thoughts going back to those people who perhaps had lost their lives.

This weekend, I was in a Sainsbury's car park, and with all the D-Day memorial happenings - I was fortunate to see the flyover of a Lancaster bomber and I think two Spitfires. It was certainly a most impressive sight and sound - but once again, it caused quite an overwhelming feeling again, actually bringing tears to my eyes, as I was forced to think of the people who had fought and lost their lives.

Also, last week I was in a charity shop, and there were two little old ladies who were reminising from when they were children, and could remember their neighbours
sons and husbands going to war 7 never coming back, one of whom had a very young baby at the time.

All these things seem to, I feel, put our existence into some perspective. We are lucky to be here, and we really should think about other ways of dealing with dispute - not fighting & killing people, they all belong to someone somewhere - they are all sons, daughters, mothers or fathers of someone.

Apologies for this rather downbeat Blog today, but it's been weighing on my mind.

Please do come back !