I remember driving in the minivan, listening to the tape my uncle had us listen to about Verdun's history. I was trying so hard to stay awake and I was mad at myself because I had forgotten my sunglasses. After 90 minutes of driving, we had arrived and I quickly forgot about my sunglasses. (Partly because it was cloudy and cold, but still.)
I am so grateful that I had the chance to go to this battleground that was fought over for almost a year and where over 700,000 soldiers died.
In America, history is so young, we almost compulsively save it. Something slightly important happened here? Or something might have happened? Memorial.
However, in France, it is completely different. To preserve everything would require preserving the whole country. The wars fought there were extremely close to home and personal. When you look at the country surrounding this little village, you know there wasn't a piece of land untouched.
We walked around abandoned villages and forts that were slowly turning into caves. We walked in a World War I trench that was slowly being filled by Nature. Everywhere you looked were massive trees, brushes, and dips and dells. We soon realized that those trees, or any tree, didn't exist during the war. Vegetation was demolished during the war. The innocent dells were not natural, but instead remnants of craters. I have never been anywhere quite like the Verdun battle fields. I doubt I ever will.
And we visited the Ossuary, the equivalent of our Arlington. We walked into the cream building and saw a chapel filled with candles and statues. However, it was the hallways that got to me. We weren't allowed to take pictures, out of respect, but these pictures are impossible to forget. They were massive, blown up pictures of the veterans. The soldiers held pictures of themselves in uniform, from the war, and mimicked the pose. A modern day veteran holding a picture of their past life. In stark black and white. In some, wives and children were visible. Others had them holding their favorite toy. Some soldiers had bright eyes and wide smiles. Some had a look of despair and sadness. They thing that touched my heart was the obvious way life had treated them. You could see how their life had gotten better and you could plainly see the loss etched in their faces.
Today is Veteran's Day. I won't pretend I know what it's like to go to war, or to sacrifice everything for my country, I've never been asked to. I won't act like this is something people know how to sympathize with. I won't pretend like this task to defend freedom was easy.
But, I hope, that throughout the course of my life, that I will be able to face a picture of a past me and see how good life was to me. I hope that I will be able to take the lesson these brave soldiers taught me. That life is a beautiful, precious thing. That life should be held in reverence and I should have respect those that have faced the possibility of losing that gift.
