This morning as I was getting ready to go to the GB church for parade, I realised I had lost my poppy so dashed to the convenience shop to get one, only to discover they'd sold out.  A man queuing to pay for his paper looked at me and said 'are you on parade?' and when I replied in the affirmative said 'I've got one in the car, you can have it.'

He didn't know me from Eve,and I was touched by this act of kindness to a stranger.  Maybe something of what this day is meant to achieve happened?

A little late for this year, but I came across some great resources on the Baptist Peace Fellowship website including this bidding prayer that captures some of the ambiguity of the day...

A BIDDING PRAYER

aware of the voices clamouring to be heard on Remembrance Day:

those who demand that gratitude be shown to those who have made the supreme sacrifice and given lives for sovereign and country

those to whom this is irrelevant past history

those who wish to remember and expect others to do so

those to who, today is but a re-opening of wounds and a delay in healing

those who glory in war and those who loathe it

those who see war as a cruel necessity and those who see it as an evil in which no-one should participate

deliver us all from an insensitive polarising of attitudes.

Remembrance

Allowing the Past to inform the Present and shape the Future

In humble gratitude

We recall those whose lives paid for our freedoms

In honest regret

We recall how our freedoms enslave and oppress others

With hopeful hearts

We anticipate the coming of peace

"My peace I leave - not the peace of the world"

"Father, forgive them, them don't know what they are doing"

Come now, O Prince of Peace, reconcile your people 

Our lunch club has an oldest member who is 102 - well old enough to me my grandmother, and technically old enough to be the grandmother of our youngest member who is in her early 60's.  Spending time with 60 or more older folk once a month is good for me - I have to slow down to snail's pace, except with one 94 year old who, with her wheels, walks almost as quickly as I do - and I learn so much from them about how to grow old both well and badly!  From other posts, you will know the ones that I warm too are often the socially awkward and humanly unlovely, but they are all special.

I was sent this kitch email by a friend which seems to me to sum up some of what I have learned from these older folk; enjoy...

OLD AGE

Old Age, I decided, is a gift. 
 
I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be.  Oh, not my body!  I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt.  And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror, but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.  As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio.  I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.  
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.  
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.

They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful.  But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I  eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken.   How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car?  But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion.  A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.  So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.  

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think.  I don't  question myself anymore.  I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I  like being old. It has set me free.  I like the person I have become.  I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.  And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

So says a postcard I have framed and hung on the wall of my dining room; so was my experience.  It always saddens me when I here the press reporting how bad somewhere is, because the truth is, in order for the national averages to exist, places have to be 'worse' as well as 'better.'  (Though I'm waiting for the day the press reports that everyone is above or below it!  ;-)  )

Having read the stuff on the BBC website, I wish I could justify the time to track down these statistics and see what they are actually saying.  Presumably even the supposedly worst grot spots on the planet have some positives, if you look for them?

Those who don't like Manchester will find in this report the affirmation that it's an awful place; those who live there may feel they have been kicked once more (or they may think 'finally, someone's telling it as it is'); those who, like me, have a soft spot for the old place, will be saddened. 

Sure, it could do better, sure it has its problems - but then the same could be said of (almost) anywhere.  Maybe this report can be read psotiviely, as highlighting some of the struggles and needs of this proud, old city - and maybe someone, somehwere will do something to help address them.  If the churches are feeling short of an outreach/mission opportunity which means really stepping beyond the nice comfort of then here's a massive one...