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stillers4me
10-26-2011, 08:21 PM
It is often played on bagpipes at police and military funerals. It has become a traditional song of parting, a song of farewell.
Mad Jack Churchill, the only known British soldier to have felled an enemy with a longbow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow) in the course of World War II, picked up his bagpipes and played it to keep his men in battle during a raid in the Balkans. Out of ammunition, he played on until knocked unconscious by an enemy grenade. The Germans captured him and took him to a POW camp. He escaped, of course.
http://cdn1.sbnation.com/images/blog/star-divide.v5e9d7f1.jpg
When Bobby Jones visited the town of St Andrews in 1958, it was his first visit in 22 years. The townsfolk loved Bobby like they loved no other, and there was a ceremony where he was made a Freeman of the town, and given the right to chase rabbits on the course, and even the ancient right to dry laundry on the first and 18th holes. He was the first American to be given that honor since Benjamin Franklin, but Bobby was crippled by a terrible disease and had not played golf in years. He got out of his motorized wheelchair, stood, and delivered a thank you that has become legend in the world of golf.
As Bobby got back into his wheelchair and headed down the center aisle to leave, a single tenor began to sing this song. Then, as one, the entire community joined in. The great golf writer, Herbert Warren Wind, was there, and he wrote, "so honestly heartfelt was this reunion for Bobby Jones and the people of St. Andrews (and for everyone) that it was 10 minutes before many who attended were able to speak again with a tranquil voice."
The song is called Bonnie Charlie, and its stanzas tell of the Jacobite rising in England, and a bloody civil war that ended with the Battle of Culloden, that led to the exile of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the end of the House of Stuart. But the chorus has a universal meaning, and it deals with the pain of parting.
Will ye no come back again?
Will ye no come back again?
Better loved ye cannot be.
Will ye no come back again?
Those words reflect the feeling of Aaron Smith (http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/players/1633/aaron-smith)’s teammates Saturday morning, when they received word that his neck injury had become so painful that it will require surgery. Aaron Smith would go on Injured Reserve, and would play no more this year. Probably never again.
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In Monday’s Tribune-Review, Dejan Kovacevic writes how Smith sat down with a group of his teammates and talked about the injury, his hopes for the future, and what he thought about the only NFL team he ever played for or ever will play for. It was followed by a long silence.
Then his great friend and bookend DE Brett Kiesel asked, "are you going to come with us?"..........

read more @ http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2011/10/24/2510414/better-loved-ye-cannot-be-aaron-smith-and-the-pittsburgh-steelers

Austin87
10-27-2011, 03:37 AM
Great article.