Symbols

Symbols are wonderful things. Don't doubt that. They capture for us the emotions, meanings, ideas, desires, dreams and intentions in just, well a symbol. In one susinct space they communicate so much than these phonemes strung together will.

Today I am struck by today's remarkable symbol and the irony and the implications of its association with today. That is, of course, the rememberance day (Armistice Day) poppy. It is iconic for me and many Canadians (I'm sure for many other people around the world too, but I'm learning in my travels not so universally as I once misbelieved), and brings to mind that John McCrae poem. And school assemblies where we sang the national anthem and gave wreaths to old people.

But more than that. The poppy evokes devotion, bushido, duty, honour, a willingness to sacrifice the self for an idea. The poppy evokes a debt, a living challenge, and a call to action. The poppy is a we must and a we will.

But how ironic that the poppy would become the symbol of this late November holiday. A flower that blooms in the spring. A flower that is fragile flower; their blooms last only a few days. And yet this flower, which you will never see in November (except perhaps somewhere in Australia...but who wants to go to Australia to see a poppy...aside from an Australian), which is so subtle and lilting and delicate is the hardend symbol of memory, or respect and thankfulness to those who came before us. Is this emotive symbol. I think that is wonderful!

If you have ever touched a poppy, gotten its purple pollen on your fingers, you know how it can mark you. If you have seen a field of them you know the silence and contemplation they can evoke. But study them, the symbol itself, and we can respect the implication and impact of this flower. We should listen to the fragile things. We should hold them dear, and let them represent us. We must protect them, lest they are forgotten and carelessly destroyed. We must honour them, lest they are neglected and dismissed.

Poppies are slow things, that in this every accelerating world should not be missed or forgotten.