Remembrance Day
This past week was Remembrance Day here in the US of A. It is not a holiday that I generally pay any attention to, other than being annoyed at the inconvenience of the post office being closed or the bank shuttered.
The church I attend now has much more preaching on the peace position and our role as peacemakers in the world than any church I have ever attended previously. It is a focus I enjoy and agree with. I also had to chuckle at a recent bumper sticker I saw that said something to the effect of... "Our country will have its priorities right when education is fully funded and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."
However, despite my lack of support for the military as an entity, I was more aware this year of the sacrifices many have made while doing what our government told them to do. The first is a resident I trained with in general surgery. He and his wife live here in Anchorage with their two toddlers. He was deployed to Qatar for a six month tour of duty leaving his wife and children to do the single parent thing.
The other person who has made the military and its sacrifices more real to me is a man who works in my office. He was a marine and spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was in Fallujah when they had to go house to house fighting the Al Qaida insurgents. He saw horrible things and had to do horrible tings. The war and the friends he lost in it seem to never be far from his mind. Remembrance Day was important to him because he was remembering friends.
He brought a book in to work, that was much like a high school yearbook. In the front it had several pages of pictures of those in his company who had died, followed by pages of pictures from their time overseas. It was moving to look through that book and feel the trauma of war.
On this Remembrance Day, I prayed that God would care for the families separated by war. I prayed that God would heal both the warriors who have fought, and the communities of people that have been destroyed by war. Most of all, I thank God for the privilege of living in a place blessed with peace.
The church I attend now has much more preaching on the peace position and our role as peacemakers in the world than any church I have ever attended previously. It is a focus I enjoy and agree with. I also had to chuckle at a recent bumper sticker I saw that said something to the effect of... "Our country will have its priorities right when education is fully funded and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."
However, despite my lack of support for the military as an entity, I was more aware this year of the sacrifices many have made while doing what our government told them to do. The first is a resident I trained with in general surgery. He and his wife live here in Anchorage with their two toddlers. He was deployed to Qatar for a six month tour of duty leaving his wife and children to do the single parent thing.
The other person who has made the military and its sacrifices more real to me is a man who works in my office. He was a marine and spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was in Fallujah when they had to go house to house fighting the Al Qaida insurgents. He saw horrible things and had to do horrible tings. The war and the friends he lost in it seem to never be far from his mind. Remembrance Day was important to him because he was remembering friends.
He brought a book in to work, that was much like a high school yearbook. In the front it had several pages of pictures of those in his company who had died, followed by pages of pictures from their time overseas. It was moving to look through that book and feel the trauma of war.
On this Remembrance Day, I prayed that God would care for the families separated by war. I prayed that God would heal both the warriors who have fought, and the communities of people that have been destroyed by war. Most of all, I thank God for the privilege of living in a place blessed with peace.
posted by The Mad Hatter at 7:32 PM
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