In The End -Song Whittington

Once again, I'd like to put a general trigger warning here. I talk about some deep and kinda dark stuff.    


    MCMXIV. I had to Google the translation and once I did the poem made so much more sense. MCMXIV, for those who don't know, translates to 1914 in roman numerals. At first glance, that might mean nothing. I myself had to do a follow-up search of important events of 1914 to jog my memory. Once I did, however, the poem took a dark turn. 1914 is the year of which the chain reaction began, the chain reaction that lead to the "War to End All Wars," aka World War I. The poem speaks of daily life. There is nothing exciting, everything is calm. There is peace and everything has an air of almost mundaneness. Yet, in the last stanza, it shifts. 

    "Never such innocence, Never before or since, As changed itself to past Without a word – the men Leaving the gardens tidy, The thousands of marriages, Lasting a little while longer: Never such innocence again."

    "Never such innocence again" really catches my eye. WWI brought about horrors that had never been seen before, and the innocence that existed before could never be restored. There was no "turning back" after the war. The world was stained by the blood of all who were slaughtered. There was no restoration available, nothing could clean the stain. 

    For anyone who's read my previous blog posts you may be thinking, "wow, Song hasn't vented this post." For those new here, I have a tendency to vent in my posts and tie them back to our readings. I honestly don't have much to say. I have plenty of things I could vent about, don't get me wrong. Yet, the words catch in my throat and all I can think is a line from a children's tv show, Steven Universe, which simply says, "There is no good war, kid." There's a lot going in my mind at the moment. I recently lost someone I was mildly close to, a young kid of 14. She's in a comatose-like state and I'm not sure if there's a way to get her back. It feels almost as though she's died, even though there's a slight chance she may come back. She didn't deserve what happened to her, what led up to this. 

    We all have wars that we fight. Maybe it isn't like World War I or II, but the fights in our minds can be just as deadly to us. The demons we face, the horrors we have to overcome, can just as easily kill us like a bullet to the face. We have to remember to reach out. We don't have to fight alone. We aren't made to fight alone. We must fight, though. We cannot give up or give in. 

    No, there are no "good" wars, but there are reasons worth fighting for. So, come as it may, hellfire and thunderous storm, I'll keep fighting. I hope you all do the same. 


-Ria


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