Friday, November 11, 2011

Remembering...

Our small connection.
Today, in Canada, we mark Remembrance Day. Between my son and I, we share two Canadian Forces decorations. Mine is a Special Service Medal, awarded for a NATO posting in Germany in the two years leading up to the end of the Cold War. It was, as they say, a "plum" posting for a padre. My son's is a South-West Asia Service Medal. As a member of the PPCLI, he earned it under infinitely more difficult circumstances, operating out of a remote and desolate Forward Operating Base in southern Afghanistan.

This is but a small connection our family has to the price of freedom that so many have paid over the years. It is so easy to take what we have in this marvellous country for granted. We come and go freely, believe whatever we want, practice any faith we wish or none at all. We have a voice in the government of our country and a system, imperfect as it is, that honours the sanctity of life and the right to pursue individual and personal destinies.

There has been a cost, a cost that we know all too well. And it has been borne on all "sides". As we stood in the rain, this morning, by the cenotaph, we remembered all of this and how precious life is, for all of us. One day, perhaps, we will find a way to live in peace with one another. We must, in any event, never give up on the idea.

May one day, peace be with all people everywhere.

Duncan.
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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous12 November, 2011 00:34

    Yes lets hope that someday all people can have all the freedoms that we here are so blessed to have.
    Peace
    L

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  2. Silbs12 November, 2011 14:06

    Thank you, Duncan. There is a binding spirituality within that whispers what needs to be...and, yet, some how we find ourselves constantly at war. Still, I have faith, all the more so when I hear words like yours. Silbs

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  3. Anonymous12 November, 2011 14:45

    Duncan. I agree. Life is precious and I too live in hope that evryone else will come to that realization and that we will have peace on earth.
    J.

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  4. Duncan and Joan Barwise12 November, 2011 17:17

    That would be a worthy goal for us all. Indeed, life is precious. Thanks for that, L.

    Thank you for that, Silbs. And we'll keep the faith. As you so wrote so eloquently in your posting, this world has had "enough" of war and violence.

    Yes, Judith, and the alternative to believing that we can one day find a way for peaceful co-existence is not hopeful. So we'll continue to live in hope, ensuring that all people are valued.

    Duncan.

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  5. George A Fenley II12 November, 2011 21:32

    Dear Duncan and Joan, yesterday we were given a Red Poppy with the black center. There is a retired group of SF Abn Paras that quietly obsevred Veterans' Day. Yesterday it was done with a British flair, The Red Poppy was handed out while a Lady in a kilt with a bagpipe played. Altough I live in the smallest state in the union and am an American, thank you for administering to the young and thanks to your son for keeping an other country free. Most of us here did Viet-Nam, but there is large number of Agan and Iraq vets and growing. George (Tenfingers)

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  6. Duncan and Joan Barwise12 November, 2011 22:16

    Thank you, George, for coming by and taking the time to share a few words here. Peace be with you. Duncan.

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