A Sea of Red Poppies

(Image Used under Public Domain Laws, Google 2015)

     For Remembrance Day November 2014 on the grounds of the Tower of London in Great Britain, an enormous undertaking was concluding and was being observed by 2 minutes of silence. 
     A sea of red Poppies totaling 888, 246,00 were observed flowing as if liquid all over the dry moat at the Tower.    Each hand shaped, beautiful ceramic red Poppy, was created by an artist and sculptor. Volunteers placed teach one carefully. The last one being placed on remembrance day itself, November 11^Th 2014.  to commemorate the end of the war in 1918.

Each Poppy symbolized the individual that had so willingly gave their life for their country in WW1.  Upon further research I discovered the origin of the Poppy and why it was used to symbolize that war.  Apparently, it is the Poppy that was the first to grow on the Flanders Field, in Belgium, that had been torn apart by the war. 

At the Tower of London, planted by the Hundreds of Thousands in the dry moat, a sea of red from a distance appears to be a river of blood.  It flows as waves culminating in a fall over the wall, then creeping as if lapping waves. 

      My first reaction was shock.  It looked to me like a field of red flowers, amazingly blooming by great numbers together on the greens of the castle.  My first thought after being solely impressed by its beauty was, “how’d they do that?” Then of course upon learning they were Poppies, my favorite flower, another wave of joy came over me, ending in disappointment upon learning they were not real. Yet, again further impressed by the unique artwork and symbolism behind it.  
     I gazed at the pictures over and over until I was moved to my very core.  My heart actually ached with the conflict between the awe of the Poppies beauty and the sadness of what they were representing there. 

My thoughts briefly situated on how it must have been for mothers and fathers to send their beloved sons off to a war.  Later complicated by the facts that we are still doing this. My moral compass sounding loudly with conflicts about the nature of war and its necessity. 

My juxtaposition, internal conflicts descending all the way to the origin of man and how it is that God who is almighty, should create us as equals and still we kill one another and then further eat our fellow creatures put upon this earth for companions as other species.  Finally, resulting in my conclusion about the failings of my closest exposures to human natures, some of which are drunkards and substance abusers. Perhaps they are weaker souls and cannot abide the violence and cruelty of mankind one to another here on this earth.  Therefore, they self medicate. 

     Perhaps as I dig deeper into myself, I am not seeking to alter my own awareness because I know that I have a purpose in living.  Yet, once again, were all of those killed in that Great War born only to die? Their bodies shot full of holes and blown apart to be scattered on the fields, rained upon to create fertile ground for Poppies.    We will remember them, because they believed in something greater than themselves and were willing to die to prove it.