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| Currumbin RSL ANZAC Day Dawn Service |
[As always, the items below were selected from my recent correspondence and are presented here anonymously. I do admit to concocting the Limerick of the Week, however.]
Yesterday was Anzac Day. Australia remembers this day every year. ANZAC stands for "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps." Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli 98 years ago, where the two countries lost more soldiers in this conflict than at any other battle of World War I.
The tradition is a moving dawn service at war memorials all over the country. The services always start before the sun rises and a single bugler plays the last call.
We watched the service on a TV broadcast from a memorial site in Currumbin, Queensland, close to the New South Wales border. Shirley and I actually ate a delicious seafood lunch at this site about six weeks ago.
The memorial is a large lava rock that juts out on the seashore about 70 ft. high. There is a small flat part at the top of it, where on this day stands the lone bugler and lone bagpiper. At the bottom, on the land side, is a man-made marble memorial too.
There were many very moving moments during the service. One when they read out the names of the 39 servicemen and women who most recently gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, one particularly moving moment for us was when they also chose this memorial service as the time to bury at sea 16 fallen soldiers from their chapter of the Returned Soldiers League (RSL). RSL's "clubs" are in almost every Australian town around the country. It is a place where every evening, for those who are there at 6 p.m., the lights are dimmed and they have one minute of silence. Shirley and I have been at many of these during this somber time and shared in this very reverent and remembering moment. It is always a respectful honor for us.
Back to the burials at sea. The local life-guard rowboats were used—each boat with one urn of a soldier's ashes. In one boat was a son holding the ashes of his dad. The boats, about 100 ft. out, had somehow lined themselves up evenly spaced and in an almost perfectly straight line facing the glow of the yet unseen sun. Their ores standing straight up, silhouetted in the semi darkness on the gentle waves of the ocean. After the parade of veterans were ordered to attention, the ashes were slowly committed to the sea as the lone bagpiper played "Amazing Grace." Whew! Tears flow.
Another deeply moving moment near the end was when the master of ceremonies asked a young boy and girl around 9 or 10 to come up and release three white doves as a symbol of hopeful peace for our future world. I think these kids had lost their dad. As the doves flew up and away, the kids tenderly waved them good-bye and the master of ceremonies in a slightly broken voice called them both by name and said, "Your dad would be so proud of you."
The sun crested the horizon and the several thousand folks still there stood silently in remembering reverence of the fallen ones.
Every single evening, 365 days a year, at the 6 p.m. time at every RSL club in the country, the minute of silence is concluded with these words spoken by all present: "With the rising and the setting of the sun, we will remember them....Lest we forget."
Sorry to hear about your being rear-ended. [After Southport last week, we were softly rear-ended within five minutes of reaching Chapel Hill to pick up Siegfried.] When we got rear-ended back I 2007 it marked the beginning of a series of things that ultimately introduced me to what “vertigo” is. Injuries to my neck and head from that accident went away after a few months, then a fall walking my dog, and I actually do not remember what the final blow was. Just remember one day waking up with my head spinning and I could not accommodate the world. Went to my doctor, who referred me to the neurologists at Chapel Hill, who had me fall backwards onto a bed and told me that I had a classic case confirmed by my eyes rolling to the back of my head. I’m all well now. It was a temporary case. But I have learned that if you hit your head too many times it could be dangerous. And I developed a keen sense of empathy for people who complain about chronic vertigo. If I had to live with that I would probably jump off a building or perform some other immediate termination of life. That is how bad it was—quite acute but fortunately short-lived).
This is my turn-on:
Where have the years gone?
1963: Long hair – 2013: Longing for hair
1963: KEG – 2013: EKG
1963: Acid rock – 2013: Acid reflux
1963: Moving to California because it's cool – 2013: Moving to Arizona because it's warm
1963: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor – 2013: Trying NOT to look like Marlon Brando or Liz Taylor
1963: Seeds and stems – 2013: Roughage
1963: Hoping for a BMW – 2013: Hoping for a BM
1963: Going to a new, hip joint – 2013: Receiving a new hip joint
1963: Rolling Stones – 2013: Kidney Stones
1963: Passing the drivers' test – 2013: Passing the vision test
Remember when girls wished they could play like the guys? Now there is a whole league full of guys who wish they could play like a girl.
There are many stops along a zip-line where you can be picked up by a four-wheeler and taken back to base camp. By the time we got to the top, a guy from New York (he and I were the oldest on in the group—he 75 and me 70) turned as we stood by the water tank and said, "I don't think I've ever had so much fun! I can't wait to see what death is like."
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| Zip-line in Costa Rica, 2005 |
A bit of perspective:
Limerick of the Week:
I was so hungry, all I could think of at the mercado_______________
Was tacos and salsa and guacamole'd avocado.
I wanted my nachos crispy-crunchy,
My enchiladas spicy-punchy;
I was, for a hot plate of Mexican-food, desperado.
Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean
| Please comment |
You should have the photo I sent by the time you wake up.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve. Looks as though I've been sent next week's first fish as well—along with some suspense as to what this photo could possibly be!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great kettle of fish, especially with the international seasoning! I hope you, and the writer who commented on it, are never, ever, bothered by vertigo again. Most people are clueless about the challenges it brings to one's life, and dismiss it as little more than a headache - until they have it. I've battled if off and on for two decades and can tell you it is an especially bad riding companion for a motorcyclist.
ReplyDeleteYes, dear motomynd, wasn't the item on Anzac Day great! A cousin of one of our columnists wrote it.
DeleteI think I must have forgotten that you had previously mentioned having to deal with vertigo yourself. I'm not sure that "again" applies to me, but I'm not sure. At any rate, I do seem to be dealing with some sort of directional disequilibrium these days, whatever its true medical dimensions.
Morris, indeed, the Anzac Day piece was great! As was the zip-line report from Costa Rica, especially the quote from the man having so much fun he said "I can't wait to see what death is like."
DeleteAs for your directional equilibrium: You might try doing balance and spinning exercises. They help immensely with my vertigo. You just have to be careful not to overdo them so you don't induce vertigo.
That'd be all I'd need, to induce vertigo. My "upward-gaze palsy" from my 1996 brain tumor's damage to my midbrain is close enough to my eyes "rolling to be back of my head," thank you very much.
DeleteI'm trying to imagine your doing balance and spinning exercises. Does the spinning ever bring on a mystical experience akin to that described by the whirling Dervishes? ("Sufi whirling")
No, I never even think about trying to reach a state of perfection. I am very happy if I merely remain standing.
DeleteThat's very cut and dried—perfect for the fish context!
DeleteA fine kettle of fish ! I especially got a kick out of " Where have the years Gone? " And your limerick is going to have us craving Mexican food Si !
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed all the above!
ReplyDelete