Putting time into perspective - my afternoon musings
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 6:11 pm
At mid day I watched the ceremony at the War Cemetery at Tyne Cot, Belgium, commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the battle for Passchendaele in WWI. Around half a million Allied and German soldiers lost their lives, were injured, or missing presumed dead; in an action that lasted 100 days in deplorable weather.
Photo images from the action brought home to me what a perilous event that was. Even the munitions were so unreliable that, to this day, around 200 tons of unexploded shells and bombs are being found each year.
So this is a hundred year anniversary, but is 100 years SO long? In a little over a year I will have lived in my house for 50 years, half the anniversary period. I was born just 17 years after that event which seems so long ago. (the event not my birth) My Grandfather had died in action 20 years before my birth. Our children are all well into their fifties and hopefully at least one grandchild will make us Great Grandparents.
I remember waiting up until about 2am on 21 July 1969 to see Neil Armstrong become the first man to set foot on the moon. And that was just 52 years after Passchendaele. Quite amazing what happened in the world during those 52 years.
I sometimes think that a good measure of time is generations. If, as a crude measure, we take a generation to be 20 years, then Passchendaele was just 5 generations ago and until quite recently, some people had aged relatives who were veterans of that action still alive. I think that makes it sound much more recent.
The Romans came to Britain in 43AD. Using my rule of thumb that is about 98 generations ago, or 20 Passchendaele anniversaries.
As I said in my title, these are just musings but when we think of time past in these terms, our life on earth is so very short.....
The ceremony at Tyne Cot was both moving and appropriate to remember those who fell.
Photo images from the action brought home to me what a perilous event that was. Even the munitions were so unreliable that, to this day, around 200 tons of unexploded shells and bombs are being found each year.
So this is a hundred year anniversary, but is 100 years SO long? In a little over a year I will have lived in my house for 50 years, half the anniversary period. I was born just 17 years after that event which seems so long ago. (the event not my birth) My Grandfather had died in action 20 years before my birth. Our children are all well into their fifties and hopefully at least one grandchild will make us Great Grandparents.
I remember waiting up until about 2am on 21 July 1969 to see Neil Armstrong become the first man to set foot on the moon. And that was just 52 years after Passchendaele. Quite amazing what happened in the world during those 52 years.
I sometimes think that a good measure of time is generations. If, as a crude measure, we take a generation to be 20 years, then Passchendaele was just 5 generations ago and until quite recently, some people had aged relatives who were veterans of that action still alive. I think that makes it sound much more recent.
The Romans came to Britain in 43AD. Using my rule of thumb that is about 98 generations ago, or 20 Passchendaele anniversaries.
As I said in my title, these are just musings but when we think of time past in these terms, our life on earth is so very short.....
The ceremony at Tyne Cot was both moving and appropriate to remember those who fell.
but then I had a second thought & raised the age to 120 years as the people living much longer.
