h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I know it sounds corny and melodramatic, but the other night I was watching that Civil War progrsm on channel 4 and they were reading the letters of an inexperienced parliamentarian soldier. Completely green, right at the start. And in it he described how one of the squad accidentally fired their musket during an attack on a church and killed a local young woman. Made me think, her only impact on history is thst someone she didn't know saw someone else she didn't know kill her.
Made me think.
Then made me think about all the millions of people who don't even get that.
I dunno, probably to maudlin right now.

Not maudlin Icky.. just pause for thought.. only in RL nobody has time to think!

I think it is important to reflect on the number of ordinary lives that go to make up the human race.
Not maudlin at all - rather humbling, really.

in the 80s we had history program on tv called "68 million Dutch" that many lived over time in the Netherlands.

I echo lil... just pause for thought. It certainly pulled me up, but in a contemplative sort of way.

UG

That may not be her only contribution. Maybe she had a child, who grew up hating Cromwell. Or maybe during her life she gave her parents so much happiness that it gave a reason to their days.

Nowadays with the internet and modern communications we can all touch many lives, but in turn each of us are touched many times over. Still there are a select few who touch us in a real, meaningful way.

For each of us there exists the opportunity to increase the beauty of people around us. Mainly we squander it. We look down on people because they're less intelligent, or a different colour, or dress differently, or are from a different generation.

Yet - Yet - every now and then we give someone else a reason to continue through adversity, and light a candle in the darkness of their moment.

It may not make the news, it won't be written down in history, but for that one moment in one day, we may have changed someone's life. We can all do it, for better or worse.

The real pause for thought is that there have been so many people just like her throughout history. Who simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. And not just in times of war. It's a daily occurrence, sad to say.

Just to give one example, imagine all those people in Madrid last March 11th, just going off to a normal day of work or to school.

This made the news because there were so many killed.

But there are daily stories of individuals, such as you posted, Ictoan.

Maudlin? I don't think so. Just being thoughtful . . . good for you.


az

Thanks peeps, cmment sall appreciated. I've decided to leave this here in my journal as a reminder to me. Been doing a lot of thinking about mortality and life and reasons and so forth.