A few years ago an Australian bought a significant war medal on auction - a Gallipoli Victoria Cross - and donated it to our War Museum. Without his or her intervention, the medal would have potentially gone overseas and/or into a private collection. I think of this person at least once a month and I thank them. I am grateful and fond of them for that act.
We come across such acts in life and these acts inspire us. They often provide the role model and leadership that catalyses others to step forward to also act with passion and humanity. To act nobly.
Some time back I posed a new category on the Lovemark site. I called it 'The Invisibles' however that wasn't the best term really and what I meant more was people who you know have done something outstanding, but you don't know their name.
Does not knowing alter the effect of the act and your memory? I would argue not. I'm sure we all remember images of war or hold faces or scenes in our mind long past the forgetting of the names and dates and location details. When we remember back our heart/mind tweaks a little. It doesn't surprise me that the very elderly often remember, in vivid detail, scenes and actions from their youth and their 20's.
For me there are a clutch of un-named Lovemarks that I hold dear, and regularly I cast a thank you in my mind towards them and what they have inspired in me.
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Postscript: At this stage I believe I know who donated the Victoria Cross - but it doesn't matter who it was - it is the act that leads me to write.
1 comment:
Susan,
when I was at school our teacher Miss Stowe took us on a trip to see the places of battle in France and Belgium during the first and second world wars. Most of the students who went on that holiday hated it, I loved it.
We went to Ypres and Somme and Bruge and all the movies I saw as a kid with my dad came back to me.Movies like Von Ryans Express, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape. I also have a very good friend who fought in the 2ww and he drove a tank. He has told me so much of his expriences and how all these years later he sometimes thinks what was all that he went through for? But you know what I told him? I told him that even if all he went through was for the simple purpose that one day he would tell me about his experiences, nothing is ever in vain.God works in all things, his prescence is always there he never leaves us alone. In times of sadness, people often say that it is at that point that one realises that what is truly of value is human beings. Every person has the right to peace of mind, to happiness and to rest. That is God's way and in his wisdom I think he will always appear in the heart of any situation and person if we let him. From sadness there is always light to follow and harmony.
Joxx
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