Lest We Forget

Yesterday was Remembrance Day. This year it happened to fall on a Sunday so I like to call it Remembrance Sunday. There are times when another person’s actions or decisions have a direct effect on us. The fallen soldiers of the World Wars gave their lives so that we might live this present and have this future. Their actions changed our destiny, or more accurately, our beginning.

Life would have started differently for many of us if the outcome of certain conflicts were not as they were. These are the precursors to before our past, during our present, and after our future. An alternate outcome to a conflict could redetermine our language, our upbringing, and maybe even our existence.

Of course though, if it were any different, some things would hold true. Such as the whole previous paragraph.

Some decisions are made for us and change us without our permission. It’s then our decision whether or not to embrace these changes. As this timeline is, and as an alternate timeline would probably be, many of these ‘changes’ more like fact. Some things are in place de facto.

We have no control over the past. We can’t change the past, but we can remember and relive. But that’s not enough.

The future is mouldable and shapeable into whatever we want to make of it. Our freedom allows us to do this - but this would hold true even if we lived an alternate ending - our existence allows us to do this.

These soldiers did not die in vain.