When I see a veteran laying a wreath, when I watch them stand back and salute the cenotaph, I wonder...what do they think about?
It's an emotional day, a day to reflect on war and on peace, on the difference between fighting for the sake of it and fighting for your country, and for contemplating the sometimes blurry lines between right and wrong.
During my years in the Canadian Navy, I paraded every Remembrance Day and think it's important for all Canadians to remember. The first year I took my now-strapping 11 year old son to a parade he was six months old and he cried the entire time...at the bitter wind that blew that day, at the sound of the bagpipes, at being cooped up for what to him must have seemed a very long time. A few years later as a first year Beaver Scout, he came with me to the Legion and handed out thank you letters to Veterans.
All three of my children are in Scouts and have not missed a Remembrance parade in years. Full uniform, bright and shiny, carry the flag into the church for the service and then parade with the firefighters, cadets, airforce, pipeband and armed forces in our small town ceremony. This year, Anna got to read In Flanders Fields at the service, and did a fabulous job with such a difficult poem. She and another Cub were also the two chosen to lay the wreath at the Cenotaph this year.
And as I watched her stand back and salute alongside a veteran, I wondered...what did she think about?
1 comment:
Really lovely, Denise. I think it's so important to have our kids involved in Remembrance Day activities. Yours will certainly know how to carry the torch forward.
I wonder what they were thinking, too.
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