Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
December 03, 2023
I have been faithfully auditing an undergraduate course at Harvard called “Loss”. It’s about all kinds of loss—loss of a home, loss of a loved one, a country, a beloved animal, a war and more. It is brilliantly taught by a classicist on the faculty.
Thursday’s class was about the Vietnam Memorial, built in Washington, DC to honor those Americans whose lives were lost, despite the war itself having been so controversial. No student in the class was alive during the war, but all engaged in the conversation.
The professor played a YouTube recording of Peter, Paul and Mary singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
It's not the first time that class has brought tears to my eyes.