Card #2: 1914 Christmas Truce Holiday Season Card

[Logbook Chapters]

We’re going into the greeting card business.
Here’s our Zazzle site: Pure Love Industries

Card #2: 1914 Christmas Truce Christmas Truce Holiday CardHoliday Season Card:

A dozen men in winter military wear stand around, their conversations paused to turn towards the camera.
Picture of soldiers during the Christmas Truce of 1914

December 24, 2014:

Early in World War I, peace broke out between the German trenches and those of the British, French, and Belgium.

None of us here now were there then. We don’t recall that particular cold dank in those particular barbedwired trenches.

By the end of WWI, eight and a half million soldiers were dead, but in these early days—when about ⅔ of the entrenched spent a few days chatting, sharing carols, smokes, drink and food, and even kicking the old football around a bit—, the war was only about 150,000 tired, cold, butcher-blocked pale young men living in ditches 100 feet apart from their sworn enemies.

In some areas, the peace lasted through New Year’s Day. In at least two cases, men attempting the truce were shot by enemy combatants.

December 25, 2018:

Merry Christmas &a/or Happy Holidays!

Oh, what a world!

We’re sick to death of the frozen bloody ground, the cold slip-slide mud, the frostbitten and/or live-rotting feet. But still we struggle to together find the way away from all this waste of life and love.

On this day, in this time, help us to remember that first and foremost we are all humans here and are all in this together. Steer us please away from any “truth” that points us away from understanding, embracing, and living that fundamental Truth. This we pray! As best we can.

This has been a Pure Love Industries Production
Text by Bartleby Willard
Historical information from “Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914” by Naina Bajekal, appearing in Time Magazine on December 24, 2014. Per the article, the truce began as carolling from within the trenches on Christmas Eve, 2014.
Casualty figure from Encyclopedia Britannica’s online WWI entry (“Killed, wounded, and missing” section).
Prayer not meant to be authoritative, but only hopeful, asking, as genuine as we poor sinners can muster.
Copyright Andrew Mackenzie Watson 2018

Front Cover Image: black and white photo of the 1914 Christmas truce between Allied and German forces.
Top page: A short historical account.
Bottom page: A short discussion and prayer of our shared wish to together all find a way forward together.
Back page: Credits & explanation that the prayer is not from some authority but from poor sinners yearning for a better way.

About:
Front Cover Image: black and white photo of the 1914 Christmas truce between Allied and German forces.
Top page: A short historical account.
Bottom page: A short discussion and prayer of our shared wish to together all find a way forward together.
Back page: Credits & explanation that the prayer is not from some authority but from poor sinners yearning for a better way.

To consider purchasing this and whatever else cards we come up with, please visit:
Pure Love Industries” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>PL Industries

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Critical Review
Seems a little heavy-handed.
People are looking for a way to cheaply and easily convey their fellow-feeling. A Christmas card should just be a sturdy structure upon which they can build their message. This card is a history lesson, and a plea for a Something Deeperism peace (no more cutting each other to pieces because now we remember that the most fundamental truth is that we’re all in this together). Kind of interesting as a short contemplation, but not really a serviceable conduit for some gentle holiday cheer.

This Logbook becomes a chapter book at Logbook of a Pure Love Mogul: Chapters

Author: Bartleby Willard
Editor: Amble Whistletown
Copyright: AM Watson