#weird timing

Literally Chase on the 20th:

Apparently, the 4th of May is Star Wars Day. I knew that, but this is the first time I'm on Tumblr on this day and it's suddenly waaaay more obvious.

The thing is, I live in the Netherlands, and over here, the 4th of May is Remembrance Day. Started out as, and still largely is, specifically WWII remembrances, but expanded to remembrances for "all Dutchpeople killed in armed conflicts since the start of WWII, no matter where in the world".

Let me make things perfectly clear, I am not upset about this, nor am I complaining. "An it harm none, do what ye will" and all that. It's just... a bit weird, cognitively.

Like, I know my Dad will pick me up later today to go to the memorial service in the cemetary in the little village my grandparents lived in, the same memorial service he's been taking me to every year since he deemed me old enough to understand (though my age was still firmly in the single digits), except for when I was in university and not always able to get away for this date (I would attend a local memorial service on those occassions). With a little freedom torch pin stuck to my shirt.

And I will be standing there, in that little churchyard less than a hundred meters from my old primary school, like every year. Watching flowers being laid at the little memorial for the people from that village who were killed in the War, my grandparents' neighbours, and the young Rhodesian Air Force Pilot who crashed his plane near the village (you can still recognize the spot by the damage to the trees) and is now burried so far from his place of birth.

And at 8 o'clock, like every year, the church bells will sound the hour, sounding just slightly of-beat, like always, and usher in two minutes of silence, only broken by the crows cawing in the trees around the cemetary.

And I will think about the things that happened back then. About the friends of my grandparents that didn't survive the War. About how my maternal grandparents' house was bombed, and my grandma barely managed to grab her baby, my aunt, and run out of the burning building (grandpa was thankfully out). About how this should never happen again.

And I will also think about the things that are happening now, and how I just have no idea how to respond? How it is all so overwhelming and I don't know what to do except listen. Wondering what my grandpa, who joined the Resistance not despite of being Autistic (in hindsight it is quite obvious), but because of it, because it gave him such a strong sense of justice, would have to say about the current state of the world if he were still alive? I don't think I'll come up with any answers.

And after the two minutes are up, the local marching band will play the Last Post and the national anthem, and the crowd will disperse, and we'll talk to some people we know, and then Dad will drop me off at home again.

And meanwhile a large part of the rest of the world is just going "Yay, Star Wars!" today!