Quote of the Post

The writer closely observed the western front during World War One. His observations here are timeless.

"The well-born, the clever, the haughty, and the greedy, in their fear, pride, and willfulness, and the perplexity of their scheming, make a general mess of the world. Forthwith in a panic they cry, 'Calamity cometh!'....
  Then from out of their obscurity, wherein they dwelt because of their low worth arise the Nobodies; because theirs is the historic job of restoring again the upset balance of affairs. They make no fuss about it. Theirs is always the hard and dirty work. They have always done it. If they don't do it, it will not be done. They fall with a will and without complaint upon the wreckage willfully made of generations of such labor as theirs, to get the world right again, to make it habitable again, though not for themselves; for them, they must spend the rest of their lives re-creating order out of chaos. A hopeless task; but they continue at it un-murmuring, giving their bodies without stint, as once they gave their labour, to the fields and the sea. And some day the planet will get back to its old place under the sun; but not for them, not for them."



H.M. Tomlinson Holly Ho, essay, from his collection: Old Junk