How People Mark Tragedy...

Following is a Facebook post from a dear friend of mine in Puhoi, north of Auckland, like me an ex-pat Aussie, and though we don't always show or say it, proud to be here in NZ. Through our communications since the quake, she has been at pains at what to do to help, or show her distress, and I think this is nice;

I made a new garden today & planted 76 canna's I had grown. Each canna represents an innocent life lost in ChCh, revised toll is at 98, I will plant until the toll is complete. I will watch these beautiful cream & pink canna's grow and think of them all and count my blessings. This nation I call home is hurting and the days ahead are going to get harder. Live today because tomorrow is just not promised ...

My only concern for Kath is that hour by hour, and day by day the number is growing, and I fear she may not have a plot big enough for the final number of flowers required. Shit, it might look like Flanders Fields by the end of it, and on that note, it brings me to another bug bear;

The ANZAC poppies.

Our very own poppy maker here in CHCH, Kilmarnock Enterprises who recently lost the rights to make them for next ANZAC Day now has nothing. A fine institution that makes wonderful wooden toys and home utensils from wood, they also give special needs people and war widows the chance to give back by producing over 1 million poppies each year for the last 30 years. Now is the time for us again to put pressure on the RSA, the keeper of the war ravaged and sacrifices and the memory of those who sacrificed the ultimate to give us the life we experience now, and provide the heart and soul of those Kiwis and Aussies standing side by side through shit and ruin to search for, recover, and save those who experience a peacetime version of what they faced. This city needs to rebuild, and while larger businesses and corporations will hopefully drive this, its the smaller enterprises such as Kilmarnock that must be allowed to rebuild themselves, all the while providing a sense of purpose for those who quite possibly have lost everything in recent days.

I hope this reference/comparison does not offend anyone, I feel that the two are very similar in destruction of the human psyche while creating special bonds and resilience.

SUPPORT RED & BLACK.