Today is November 11, Remembrance Day.
As I pause and reflect on this day these are the thoughts that come to mind:
Remember…
Remember not the destruction and hatred. Remember instead the moments of humanity shining like beacons of connection from every corner of the chaos. We are all human. We all have the capacity for compassion and empathy, wherever we are, in whatever circumstance.
I think of stories from the concentration camps, where prisoners refused to succumb to the bitter hatred and despair. Of acts of compassion, not only of prisoner to prisoner but of captive to captor.
I am reminded of the story of Christmas eve during World War I, of soldiers from both lines of trenches singing Christmas carols, christening the still night air above no-mans-land.
We are all human. We all have the capacity for compassion and empathy. Let us never forget that.