My family has no documented connection to the wars as they are studied in Canada and my parents, both of who escaped to Taiwan from Communist China as refugees as small children, have never really discussed what their memories might be of that experience. My father's father fought against the Communist takeover at some point but my paternal grandmother never told me those stories before she passed away and I heard only snippets third hand from a cousin. My maternal grandparents have nothing to say on the topic either and time is running short on chances for us to ask, I guess. Somewhere along the way, though, I developed a deep sense of the privilege that my generation enjoys in the peace we have always known. I have good friends who are directly involved in Canada's military presence around the world and I have students who are barely able to stand in silence for two minutes between bugle calls. Today, it feels like there is more of a sense of the global landscape but a deeper disconnect between how we live and how we are able to live this way.
I learned the words to the poem "In Flanders Fields" in my Grade 2 class as a recitation that we performed as part of the service that year and have never been able to forget them. John McCrae's life was far removed from mine in space, time and experience and yet his words bring peace to my heart whenever I hear or speak them.
I also learned that poem and have never forgotten it. I recite it every year, even if I don't have an audience.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were living in occupied Holland and still vividly remember the day the Canadian soldiers drove up and freed them, tossing chocolate and cigarettes from their trucks and tanks. My grandfather on my dad's side was an active member of the Dutch Resistance and their family harboured both Jewish families on the run from the Nazis and Allied soldiers hiding behind enemy lines. Some of the stories he has told me send shivers up my spine.
We live in a very privileged time and it behooves us to teach the generations that come after us how much blood, sweat and tears were shed in order for us to live the way we do.
Thanks so much for sharing such a lovely comment about the meaning of Remembrance Day for you and your family. And absolutely, the further we get from those memories, the more effort we must put in to engender the appreciation and understanding in our younger generations.
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