The Somme

Ever since I was a boy, "the Somme" has been a euphemism for slaughter. As one small part of the front of trenches that stretched from Alsace-Loraine to Belgium during World War I, "the Somme" was that active stalemate of armies that ground men, equipment and the very earth into pulp. Over 1 million soldiers of all nations were killed or wounded in this particular part of the first global war.  The scale of the killing represented the victory of industry over humanity, a theme that carried on through the 20th Century and which shows no sign of waning in the 21st. No wonder the countryside is dotted with graveyard after monument after graveyard; the land itself continues to give up its dead even a century later. "Lest We Forget" is as much a call to remember the terrible cost of arrogant ambition as it is a reminder to honour the dead.

Consequently, it has been a revelation to find that today, "the Somme" is a gentle river running through a verdant and peaceful countryside! Birds sing, vegetables thrive, wheat and corn are abundant; cattle and sheep graze placidly, even in pastures still pocked with shell holes. The town of Albert, once destroyed in that paroxysm of violence, today holds its Saturday market in the town square, its cathedral fully restored. "The Somme" today is testament to human resilience.

The juxtaposition of these two is more than I can fathom. I am only happy to witness that "Peace" has the final word; it is the norm. May it endure forever.