TOY SOLDIERS
If you’ve never been to a battle reenactment before, I’d recommend you go at least once.
It’s completely serious, surreal, absurd, and self-aware all at once: The tension felt in the air before the cannon explodes, breathing fire and smoke – broken by a cry from some spectator’s kid; the thunder and snap of horses’ hooves – contrasted by the leisurely dinking of the swords as to not hurt anyone; green, dewy fields littered with the frozen lifeless bodies of soldiers and drummer boys – only for you to see one body cough and take a sip of water from his canteen; the marching of soldiers wearing eerily accurate uniforms, like they just time-traveled – contrasting with the chuckling of reenactors after being “stabbed.” The genuine, the grounded, and the real mixes with the playful energy of toy soldiers.
The purpose of these reenactments is to show the truth: the ugly side of history – how prejudice, anger, and personal greed from both sides fuels great and terrible armies waging vain wars against each other – and for us to hopefully learn something through the blending of the past and of the now to show that really, history isn’t as much history as it is the present.
