Remembering the past, as the future arrives
This morning I attended the Remembrance Sunday service at Prestwich Congregational Church, and then joined the parade to the war memorial.
At 11am we stood for two minutes of silence, and then I joined other local Councillors, representatives of the Police, Royal British Legion, community groups, and cadets in laying a wreath. Mine was from Cllr Donal O’Hanlon, Cllr Mary D’Albert and me on behalf of the people of St Mary’s Ward, to remember the incredible sacrifices that have been made, and continued to be made, by those seeking to defend our country.
There are two things about today that I genuinely believe. First, that this act of wreath-laying, silence and remembrance is probably the most important single event in the year for me as a Councillor. Not just the symbolism of representing the community in remembering the fallen, but also in the actual act of pausing briefly to think about hardships I can barely imagine.
But second, I really do think that it is apt that we stop to think of freedom and all it means, in this week when profound positive change has been so clearly promised in America, and the hope that that engendered has been so keenly felt around the whole world.And for me, the promise of a better future, fought for long ago and perhaps realised overseas on Tuesday night, was brought home last night.
My extremely pregnant friend, the first of the gang of us who’ve grown up together, is no longer so, and gave birth to little Florrie at around the time I was buying a Sam Cooke album from Zavvi in town yesterday tea time.
In doing so, she managed to lose 7lb 13oz in one go, which no amount of restriction on the number of times I go to Greggs at lunchtime seems to accomplish for me!
And so from being a gaggle of half a dozen fresh-faced 18 years olds meeting on the first day at university many years ago, we now have the first member of the next generation with us. It’s spectacularly good news, and I think remarkably poignant that the journey our children make into the future begins in the very same week that we remember those who have fallen to give us this world of freedom and opportunity to live in, and in the very week when that world of freedom is renewed.
I don’t know what she’ll be when she grows up. But I do know that she could live to see the 22nd century, to experience things we haven’t even dreamed of yet, and to travel a world full of promise and hope. She could work to make the world better in ways we don’t even know exist yet. She is what will keep us going.
She is 18 hours old. The sun has risen once in her life. I hope it carries on shining, and that’s why we need to keep laying wreaths, working together, and remembering why we’re all here. She’s the future our old soldiers fought for.
Mother and baby are fine, apparently, which is remarkable given that one of them squeezed the other out of her just yesterday afternoon. The father rang me to let me know, and I was in the bath at the time, which makes at least two people he knows who have received a shock whilst naked in the past few hours. I can’t wait to meet her, and I hope all of our children grow up together in a world where they can achieve whatever their talents allow.
During prayers at the service today, we prayed for God to grant that for the sake of those whom we have named in our hearts, and for the sake of generations yet unborn, the nations of the world may live in abiding peace.
In this week when the nations of the earth have a new leader, and when I have said hello to the new generation for the very first time, let us all join in and pray for that abiding peace.
Rick
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