Lest We Forget

It is week forty-four in our fifty week challenge and our prompt was the phrase Lest We Forget. Paying tribute to the men and women who fought for freedom in World War II, I thought it would be cool to combine graphic lines with camouflage. To do that I wrote the prompt phrase in black sharpie then added words to describe what the world was fighting to protect – freedom, joy, liberty, family. I colored in the shapes to emphasize the main concept. I did not plan for the phrase to run out of the box yet I think it works. As Bob Ross would say, a happy accident!

My paternal grandfather fought in World War I with the hope that his descendants would not have to fight another war. WWII proved that hope wrong. It rocked the world and we still find movies, articles, documentaries and books about those years. It was a time when “foe” took on an entirely new meaning. Other wars followed WWII and yet no other global events struck so many lives until this global pandemic. Strange that a virus that infected without warning has had the same impact as a mad man who wanted to rule the world.

Let us never forget the lives that were given and changed because of that war. Let us never forget that freedom isn’t free, someone out there is paying the price and sacrificing their own life so that we can work, live, play and love the way we want. And let us never forget that we too have a role to play in protecting our freedom, joy, liberty and families. We must choose everyday to embrace what this country stands for AND protect it even if we do not agree with our neighbor on all topics. The ability to disagree freely, openly and as loudly as we want is the EXACT reason wars are fought and endured. Let us never forget that we are the ones benefiting from the efforts and lives given decades and decades long past.