Passages...

Memorial Day...The day we remember those who gave their lives so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have...some of them did not wish to go - they were drafted - some of them fought to go - some looked deep within themselves and volunteered to go, men, women, animals...all thought of other than themselves and put their lives on the line as soon as they put on their uniform.  They knew instinctively that they would be lucky if they came back, but they all went - somewhere on this earth - to fight, or stand, for that nubulous thing called Freedom.
What are we teaching our children?  I don't want to teach them that "War is good and proper"  that "Joining the military will make a man or a woman out of you." Are we teaching them anything of value?  I want to teach them that the things they take for granted are purchased at a price greater than anything they have in their pockets.  I want to teach them that they can be playful, thoughtful, wishful, hopeful and can acheive something of value in their world, but they have to be willing to fight for it if it becomes necessary.  I want to teach them that Freedom is NOT Free.

I will take a minute of your time and quote to you C.S. Lewis:

War threatens us with death and pain.  No man (sic) need try to attain a stoic indifference about these things:  but we can guard against the illusions of the imagination.  We think of the streets of Warsaw and contrast the deaths there suffered with an abstraction called Life. But there is no question of death or life for any of us; only a question of this death or that - of a machine gun bullet now or a cancer forty years later.  What does war do to death?  It certainly does not make it more frequent:  100 per cent of us will die, and the percentage cannot be increased.  It puts several deaths earlier: but I hardly suppose that that is what we fear.  Certainly when the moment comes, it will make little difference how many years we have left behind us.  Does it increase our chances of a painful death?  I doubt it...what we call natural death is usually preceded by suffering:  and a battle is one of the very few places where one has a reasonable prospect of dying with little or no pain at all.  Does it increase our chances of dying at peace with God?  I cannot believe it.  If active service does not persuade a man (sic) to prepare for death, what...would?  Yet war does do something to death.  It forces us to remember it...War makes death real to us..."

Death also reminds us that others still live, and for them we should prepare to keep their lives free to enjoy their days, give comfort to them when needed, and season their lives with the truth.

As my daughter once said:  " Mum, why can't we all just get along?"

Le. Conteur