Touching the ghostly reminders of lives like ours, we first passed around a faded photograph, framed in ordinary metal, having that quality of age you only get hung in the love of a family home; then a postcard, etched with the thoughts and longings of a young man, looking forward to seeing his family once again.
These ordinary objects seemed to have histories to them that ANZAC Day seemed to miss.
Dr Powell told us the stories of how WWI tore apart these families, how it was a long and extremely difficult fight that wounded, traumatised or killed thousands of Australians, many from Trinity’s own community. He told us about the realities of the war: the gruesome, inconceivable atrocities; the untellable sacrifices of soldiers and families; and the unknowable conditions.
We were given a new perspective behind the ceremony, one that spoke clearly of the reasons why we observe ANZAC Day in Australia, and a reminder that no matter how we might come to understand these experiences of war for us, the lives of the soldiers who faced war were forever changed in ways that are difficult to understand.
