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.