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You know, World War I has always been a really fascinating time period to me. Very few wars kill as many ideals as they do men. It was arguably the single tipping point that led to all of the major events of the past century. World War II, conflict in the Middle East, the fall of empires, everything eventually gets traced back to World War I, the seminal catastrophe.

Almost 40 million people died during this conflict, for one cause or another. Men died in trenches that would become the graves they dug themselves, victims of new vicious technologies like tanks and shell bombs and poison gas, while disease threatened everyone who could have buried them back home. It was brutal, on a scale that had never been seen before. It was the first point in history that forced us to look at the new powers we held at our fingertips and realize that they weren't just swinging around dingy swords and muskets anymore. War was not honorable after World War 1. You didn't go to war to earn honor and be decorated for courageous acts on horseback, you went to war to suffer and die for something only the rulers actually cared about. You came home with no fanfare, or no life. It's a time remembered for how tragic it was, for how cruel it was, how pointless it was.

And yet, despite all that, despite all the death and disease and tears, there's still one moment that shines through it all, one moment of one year that stands above the evils of the war and says that it doesn't have to be this way.

The Christmas Truce of 1914. The day that a war was brought to a halt. And yes, it wasn't as perfect as we retell it and there were certainly many people who didn't embrace what they day stood for, but it still happened nonetheless, and it's honestly one of the most touching moments in history that I can think of.

Men locked in the trenches, longing for home after so much suffering, forced to sit in their holes scared of the enemy firing on them. And then singing. Singing from both sides. The songs they share even if they don't share their languages. And then on Christmas day, the day they all knew as the day that symbolized all that was good in the world, the day where everyone was supposed to stop the killing, stop the hatred, stop the suffering, and just hold hands with those around you, a few brave men put their trust in that spirit, and they stepped out onto the fields where so many of their friends had died, and they shook hands. No guns that day. No hatred. No bias.

No war.

It was Christmas, and they were human beings. Not British, not French, not Belgian, not German. Human.

And for that brief day, the songs rang across Europe. They were brothers, all of them victims of the same war that they were thrust into, all of them with families back home they wished to return to. The spirit of hope, of love, of Christmas, proved to be stronger than the Great War. It's stronger than anything. It's the force that has got us all to the world we live in now. The spirit of the lesson we learned from World War 1: that such a seminal catastrophe must never, ever be allowed to repeat again.

So this Christmas, go out and hug someone you know. Go share a cake with someone who needs it. No matter what your differences, no matter if they're a total stranger, no matter what grievances may be there, show love to someone. Anyone. Everyone. For the sake of all of those brave men who now lay at rest in Ypres, and Verdun, and the Somme, and Flanders Fields, show the same love that they showed that Christmas Day, and make sure that it never ever dies out.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone.

Stay safe, stay warm, and never let that light go out

Description
You know, World War I has always been a really fascinating time period to me. Very few wars kill as many ideals as they do men. It was arguably the single tipping point that led to all of the major events of the past century. World War II, conflict in the Middle East, the fall of empires, everything eventually gets traced back to World War I, the seminal catastrophe.

Almost 40 million people died during this conflict, for one cause or another. Men died in trenches that would become the graves they dug themselves, victims of new vicious technologies like tanks and shell bombs and poison gas, while disease threatened everyone who could have buried them back home. It was brutal, on a scale that had never been seen before. It was the first point in history that forced us to look at the new powers we held at our fingertips and realize that they weren't just swinging around dingy swords and muskets anymore. War was not honorable after World War 1. You didn't go to war to earn honor and be decorated for courageous acts on horseback, you went to war to suffer and die for something only the rulers actually cared about. You came home with no fanfare, or no life. It's a time remembered for how tragic it was, for how cruel it was, how pointless it was.

And yet, despite all that, despite all the death and disease and tears, there's still one moment that shines through it all, one moment of one year that stands above the evils of the war and says that it doesn't have to be this way.

The Christmas Truce of 1914. The day that a war was brought to a halt. And yes, it wasn't as perfect as we retell it and there were certainly many people who didn't embrace what they day stood for, but it still happened nonetheless, and it's honestly one of the most touching moments in history that I can think of.

Men locked in the trenches, longing for home after so much suffering, forced to sit in their holes scared of the enemy firing on them. And then singing. Singing from both sides. The songs they share even if they don't share their languages. And then on Christmas day, the day they all knew as the day that symbolized all that was good in the world, the day where everyone was supposed to stop the killing, stop the hatred, stop the suffering, and just hold hands with those around you, a few brave men put their trust in that spirit, and they stepped out onto the fields where so many of their friends had died, and they shook hands. No guns that day. No hatred. No bias.

No war.

It was Christmas, and they were human beings. Not British, not French, not Belgian, not German. Human.

And for that brief day, the songs rang across Europe. They were brothers, all of them victims of the same war that they were thrust into, all of them with families back home they wished to return to. The spirit of hope, of love, of Christmas, proved to be stronger than the Great War. It's stronger than anything. It's the force that has got us all to the world we live in now. The spirit of the lesson we learned from World War 1: that such a seminal catastrophe must never, ever be allowed to repeat again.

So this Christmas, go out and hug someone you know. Go share a cake with someone who needs it. No matter what your differences, no matter if they're a total stranger, no matter what grievances may be there, show love to someone. Anyone. Everyone. For the sake of all of those brave men who now lay at rest in Ypres, and Verdun, and the Somme, and Flanders Fields, show the same love that they showed that Christmas Day, and make sure that it never ever dies out.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone.

Stay safe, stay warm, and never let that light go out