While wars are raging

While wars are raging it's good to remember the saying that guns should be melted down to make ploughs. Or sensitive works of art that commemorate the deaths of those who died.

I first heard the saying when I traveled to Germany as a youngster and in the middle of Berlin I found a table laden with books being sold by the local anarchists. They were also selling t-shirts with the slogan in German: Schwerter zu Pflugscharen.

I was young and stupid. So I asked the head anarchist what it meant and he got furious and said, figure it out. Well, it was then that I also figured out that anarchists are angry people.

I wondered what sort of farmers they would make once the guns had been turned into ploughshares (to use the correct term).  And besides, would  their little dream farms mean that big business would no longer control farm workers, and eco hazardous farming practices. 

So I got their anger. They couldnt really win. But Berlin was like that. It was cold and grey, and you could understand why some kids dreamed of free sunny lives in the farmlands. 

And that's kind of where my head is at, as winter approaches.