Eighty years ago I received the best birthday present I have ever had in anticipation of my soon-to-happen thirteenth birthday. As I stepped across the magic line from child to teenager, peace was declared in Europe. I remember it vividly. A massive crowd gathered at the gates of Buckingham Palace. The King and Queen came out onto the balcony with Winston Churchill, the hero of the hour. Meanwhile their two children, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, slipped out incognito into the crowd, escaping their minders, and spent an evening with the rejoicing Londoners. The tears shed were almost all tears of joy but some, of course, were tears for the many who had fallen in the war.
We had a long stretch of mostly peace for the next seventy years. There were fights and disagreements but generally the world retained a progressively happier standard of living. Fewer people suffered extreme poverty; more began to have joyful and reasonably settled lives. Progress was breathtaking. All that started to fade as competition to excel became greed to deprive. Even as we built the opportunity to create we began to unravel the opportunity to enjoy. The search for happiness became a scavenge for possession.
What do I hope for in anticipation of my soon-to-happen ninety-third birthday?
First, that we never forget the price humanity – our humanity – paid for two world wars. The memories fade as those who lived through them go to their rest. The scars become memorials and parks of beauty. The pressures of today dominate the memories of the past. But we should never forget the boy soldier who stopped to help his mate and ended up a victim too.
Second, that we learn the responsibility that comes with greater control over our lives. Everybody is a gift of life for everyone else. Only when we treat them as one can we claim to be fulfilled. A fulfilled life may go to rest but it never disappears. It is the light for the future.
May you be blessed with the light of the future.
May those who fought for it be remembered with love and gratitude.
Good morning
John Bittleston
“No thought of love is ever lost if thought for someone else.”
JRB
06 May 2025
