Les Feuilles Mortes.

Went out for an early walk and bumped into so many people.

A couple of old guys (which is funny coming from me - I guess they were just older than I am) wearing the standard poppy. I liked that. Simple, humble, understated and solemn. It presents a united front against adversity based on the recognition of equality. Like illness, war shows no respect for class boundaries.

So different from the glossy face of "remembrance" we see today. So different from the current fashion in poppy wearing - ceramic ones, big ones, ones with glitter on, ones for the car, ones for dogs and cats and rabbits and guinea pigs and....

Why has that happened? On what planet can a showy, sparkly, glittery poppy be an appropriate way of paying respect to the dead? Perhaps it's not surprising - at a time when fundamental principles behind other institutions emerging from the two wars of the early twentieth century are also under threat.

Anyway, I walked on and headed up the railway thinking that, as the Kirk was in and as it was relatively early on a Sunday morning, I'd have it all to myself. Wrong! I don't think I've ever seen so many people. Next on my travels I bumped into Hamish McAlpine (Dundee United goalie back in the 80's when Aberdeen were giving them a good run for their money in Europe as well as at home). We talked about cameras, the colours of the leaves and his dogs as they trawled through the fallen leaves in the glinting sunlight...

... and I thought about the vast number of autumn leaves as I watched them fall slowly, gently and quietly to the ground. I thought about the sadness of Les Feuilles Mortes as I went on my way...

Oh ! je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes
Des jours heureux où nous étions amis.
En ce temps-là la vie était plus belle,
Et le soleil plus brûlant qu'aujourd'hui.
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle.
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié...
Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle,
Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi
Et le vent du nord les emporte
Dans la nuit froide de l'oubli.
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié
La chanson que tu me chantais.

C'est une chanson qui nous ressemble.
Toi, tu m'aimais et je t'aimais
Et nous vivions tous les deux ensemble,
Toi qui m'aimais, moi qui t'aimais.
Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s'aiment,
Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit
Et la mer efface sur le sable
les pas des amants désunis.

... and I reckoned that this was a much more appropriate way to remember.