Acts and Omissions

Dear Diary,

As a normal rule, an act is not an omission and the law differentiates between the two. As with most rules, there is an exception which takes place today. Omitting to speak for two minutes at 11 o’clock is an act of remembrance and solidarity. One need not approve of particular wars to understand that it is not an army’s job to argue about whether or not to fight. When a soldier goes to fight, he or she does so on behalf of us all, whether we want them to or not. The risk thus taken is one we should honour.

The loss of one, individual, life reverberates through families, personal relationships and communities. The loss of millions of lives has, arguably, an exponential effect. It does not seem too much to ask us all to think, for 120 seconds of one day of a year, of countless lives ended, countless lives altered and countless lives unlived, and to wear a paper flower to show that one has done it.

The prophet Malachi says, “For from the rising of the sun to its setting, My Name is great amongst the nations” (1:11), to which we have added “we will remember“. Dear Diary, whether one believes in God or not, today would seem to be an appropriate day to reflect that when we ask others to pay with their lives, it ought at least to be for something we value. Simply saying “what a waste” comes close to nihilism: if we believe that to be so (and some may and some may not), then we must, surely, ask ourselves what we would do instead. Whilst we are doing that, we may perhaps profitably honour those who no longer have that capacity.