Yesterday Kari and I were watching a documentary about “How Summer Changed the World”. (Netflix)
The episode discussed the impact of warm summer months on various industries, discoveries, and historical achievements. One example of the Summer’s impact was of the concept of a Phalanx.
From Wikipedia:
“Unable to maintain professional armies, the city-states relied on their own citizens to fight. This inevitably reduced the potential duration of campaigns, as citizens would need to return to the own professions (especially in the case of farmers). Campaigns would therefore often be restricted to summer. Armies marched directly to their target, possibly agreed on by the protagonists.”
The footage in this section showed Roman soldiers juxtaposed with images of modern warfare.
While watching the episode Kari asked me, “Why are there wars?”
I responded with, “Sometimes people don’t agree with each other and they get angry. Some times they don’t listen, sometimes they lie. That upsets people and sometimes they do bad things to each other.”
Logically, she then asked, “When will war end?”
I said, “I don’t know buddy. I hope one day that they all end and we can spend our time getting along.”
After a beat she responded with, “Yeah, I don’t understand why people fight. They should get along.”
War is terrible. It’s befuddling to my 7-year-old daughter as much as it is to myself. I strive to be a good person, to see the good in other people, to be not just tolerant, but accepting of our differences, and to work toward peace.
One day war will be a historical artifact. One which our future generations will have a hard time wrapping their heads around because it will seem so foreign. I can’t think of a solid concrete example, but I think of things like traveling by sail-powered ships, scurvy, maybe even the concept of a disease like Polio.
They existed, people experienced these things, but in a future us, we only read about them in text books and documentaries.
I respect our Veterans and their sacrifices – for whichever ideas and people they defend. I think most who go to war don’t know what they’re getting into. Nothing can properly prepare a person (young or old) for what that experience will hold. They are people, like the members of a phalanx, who will return to a profession – or not.
One day Veterans will no longer be a thing. They’ll be a distant concept. Until then we should remember them with positive action, with acceptance, with peace.
I like the concept of Armistice Day – the celebration of not just the people, but of the ‘cessation of hostilities’ – the end of war.