TIL about the Christmas Truce - Proof Most People Don't Want War and the Real Spirit of Humanity
The Christmas Truce is when British, French and German WWI soldiers crossed their dug-in trenches to share gifts, conversation, and even a game of football (soccer) in some cases.
I watched a short, yet touching, 3-minute video about this. Please indulge yourself in a possible tear-jerker :)
Christmas Truce of 1914, World War I - Christmas is for Sharing
This reenactment really shows something at the core of us all, and exemplifies the Christmas "spirit":
Peace - No Harm
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Peace simply 'is'. Peace, neutrality, is the default state. Let it be!
Just writing this post, and thinking about our core human desire to not harm others... it's emotional and inspiring. At least for me it is!
Here are these poor misguided pawns in a war, all thinking they are doing good whether they are or not.
They all want to do good it seems, they think they are good in their conditioned state, yet their actions contradict and create confusion in their core inner-self.
This drives one man to try to be true to his inner core (with others who soon follow), to take a chance and start the ball rolling to get everyone to have a day of peace.
Amidst trying to kill each other for neither of them having previous harmed any of each other, they took time to follow their inner-most human desire for non-harm, non-violence and non-aggression.
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This shows the power of consciousness to change things in an instant. We can change, do things differently, and overcome our conflicts if we choose to.
Of course, consciousness can be directed toward the ideal of good, but also manipulated towards evil through the illusions of "good" and "order". War in general goes to show again the power of consciousness and our ability to be influenced by the belief in authority of others over us.
There would be no wars, if soldiers didn't follow the orders of authority.
Think about it. These pawns wouldn't have to throw themselves into a sacrifice ritual to win fights for certain people, if they chose not to. Then, all you would have is this guy, or a small group of people, who want to do some bad stuff, but need more people.
The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance. People need to always unite on morality and not succumb to the pressures of authority that control their lives.
Ok, so that's my little sob story on how it impacted me.
Here are some facts about that Christmas week in 1914:
1) Christmas Truce
An unofficial ceasefire in WWI's western front, from December 24th 1914, to January 1st 1915.
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2) Caroling and Merriment
Silent Night was heard by the British, being sung be Germans. In response the British sang Come All Ye Faithful, to which thGerman did a Latin version of the same song in return.
This fostered at atmosphere of care and trust, with the two sides carefully stepping closer to each other as they met in the open no man's land.
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3) Gift Exchange
Meeting and exchanging handshakes was the first gesture to opening their "hearts". Soon gifts followed, including food, drinks and the popular cigarettes, chocolate and alcohols. Clothing was even exchanged, and one British soldier even received a haircut during the period of the truce.
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4) Bury the Dead
Not everyone mingled with the other side the whole time. It was also used as a time to bury the dead. Both sides helped each other though, as another sign of the true "spirit" of our desires and intent to each other when the mechanisms of control and manipulation are removed.
Many areas of the war front went into a truce period from requests to bury the dead, the simply prolonged a temporary cease-fire.
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5) Football
The most recognized interaction was playing a game of football (soccer), where the Germans are said to have won 3-2. Some argue it never happened, but there is evidence that at least the ball was kicked around a while.
This happened in a few areas, but not all. Other areas had football games where people of the same nationality played together, with no international playing.
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In other area's where a cease-fire emerged, most soldiers didn't mix, but merely observed a silent peace that was all too short, resuming a horrible war when the orders came back down.
Like I said earlier, this was a touching story for me to learn about. It showed the core "spirit" of who we are deep down.
It also shows how we are broken, damaged and conditioned into falser versions of ourselves, inhibited from being the greater, higher, truer and realer potentials of ourselves towards the ideal of good.
Authoritarianism, order following and the chain of obedience are psychologically devolved methodologies for living that we need to overcome for humanity to progress forward as truer potentials of ourselves.
Seek moral truth, evolve consciousness.
Thank you for your time and attention! I appreciate the knowledge reaching more people. Take care. Peace.
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@krnel
2016-12-09, 9:56am
My father was in Italy in World War II and I remember him speaking of similar events around the holidays between British and American forces. I believe we humans are essentially good.
Indeed. We're essentially neutral, peaceful, by default. We can create positive good and negative evil. The default, being not evil, means it's automatically good, but not an active positive good.
Touching. Deeply so. Thank you.
You're welcome :) I expected some people to notice the good message in this post, especially with the title. ;)
Thank you for this post; for what it's worth, I've voted, resteemed and shared on my Fb page (a first for me, to do all this for one post on Steemit :P )
I'm usually reading your posts, most of them, I find interesting; this one is, for me, one of your best so far.
Awe, shucks :D Thank you for the kind words and support :) It's the most emotionally teary, so I get why you find it the best ;) Emotions are powerful drives.
The propaganda must be powerful in order to convince someone to blow up another human the day after you shared a meal and a cigarette with them. People don't want war, governments want war.
More great stuff! I fought in Vietnam and have seen first hand man's inhumanity to man. We used to say if the politicians want war, let them grab some guns and get busy! Pie in the sky, I'm afraid. Plato wrote: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." Did you know that out of about 250 years that the US has been a country, we've been at war for about 200 of them? I can find the exact numbers if you want, but you get the point. The real tragedy is the scars that we carry inside...I fought that war in my head for over 20 years after I came home. I immersed myself in drugs and alcohol and it's really a miracle I'm still alive, much less coherent (I do have brief moments of clarity, or so I've been told lol) Keep up your great posts, they're one of the things I've come to look forward to!!!
Yeah the 200/250 thing I've seen, it's sad... the world has had constant conflict... thinking is something prevented if you want to keep power and control over others. Thanks for the feedback and support.
I learned this last Christmas, and it really moved me.