On Saturday, many of us will wander solemnly down to the Cenotaph as we wait for the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies to begin. It will likely be cold, but we will have our mittens and the warmth of our friends and neighbours huddling in one of the densest crowds you are likely to see on this island.
Part of the beauty of this ceremony is a sense of it being unchanged. Its purpose, of course, is to connect us to history. The sense of being unchanged certainly helps that. At 11:11, the crowd, except for maybe a small child or two, goes silent. It’s hard to think of a more powerful lead-up to a speech or sermon. We are so fortunate to have Rev. Shelagh MacKinnon taking the mic at that moment, as her compassion and choice of words and stories seem to focus, always, on connecting us with our own humanity. Last year I recall feeling deeply gutted by her stories of loss brought by war, and angry at the senselessness of it all.
It has been almost one hundred years since Armistice, and so many horrible wars have been fought since. Naturally, we have expanded the focus of the remembering. Still though, there is that central historic connection, one that we do not necessarily all share. There is a sense that some of us can stand proud for our ancestors being on “the right side of history,” when we know that history is complicated, and that the simple division of things places people in impossible situations. We also need to remember, that World War I, if we are going back to that, was an irrational mass slaughter on all sides, fueled by nationalism and machismo.
So, for those of us dedicated to participating in this ritual, Remembrance Day is a moment of pride and connection with this community. For others among us, both the remembering and the thoughts and feelings about the ceremony itself are more complicated, and that’s okay. Here in the Canada, we get to choose where we stand on these things. Hopefully, that decision to view things differently doesn’t leave anyone feeling left out in the cold in this connected community.
