No Winners

Posted on November 10, 2013 under Storytelling with no comments yet

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”

Laurence Binyon

We live in a society that is obsessed with winning and losing.  Whether in sports, politics or business, being at the top of the heap matters.  It matters most to the people at the top of that heap.  But what about those in the middle and those at the bottom?  Does “not winning“ mean losing?

In war, there are no winners.

This is the time of the year that we pause and reflect on the sacrifices made by young men and women who fought in the two World Wars.  We see them on Remembrance Day, the ones still well enough to march down Main Street to the cenotaph.  Every year the numbers dwindle.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old …”

What must they be thinking as their arthritic limbs and often troubled minds carry them to the meeting spot, where small children and ordinary folks pay tribute to their courage?  Many of us have parents or grandparents who served in the war.  One thing in common is their reluctance to speak about what they saw, what they heard and what they felt.  These stories are only shared in private moments with their comrades.  People who understand.   They won’t tell you much but you can read a lot in their eyes.

And while we honor older veterans on November 11th, we must not forget those who represent Canada in some very troubled places in the world.  Many of us have sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives who have left the comfort of home to serve in these more recent conflicts.  We must realize that, when they return home, the horrors of war can leave them disabled in ways that are not readily apparent.  Often the psychological scars are equal or greater than the physical ones.

“Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn…”

Such a waste of young lives in the name of freedom.  And somehow, the lessons of the past seem to have been forgotten.  “Never again” is a common refrain heard at this time of the year but it has seemingly fallen on deaf ears.  Ethnic warfare and religious intolerance continue to scar the landscape.  Traditional warfare is still alive and well but a new and more sinister kind of warfare has emerged.  Terrorism.  The enemy is not easy to spot any more.  We don’t necessarily have to go to war – war can come to us.  We wonder – is human life of no value in the hearts and minds of those who squander it by their deeds?

We must remember our veterans and the sacrifices they made, but we must not fall into the trap of glorifying war.  All life is precious.  War by its nature makes life expendable.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

We can’t, on our own, prevent wars.  One thing we can do is to exhibit tolerance and patience.  We can be more welcoming to people who don’t look like us, who don’t speak our language or have the same customs.   Many of them are here because of war in their homelands.  Their stories are unimaginable. We must remember that our forefathers, too, were once immigrants to this country.  Yes, we expect that they will abide by our mores but let’s give them time.  In many cases they are still reeling from being uprooted from what was once home.

And in all things, we should try harder to eliminate the “winning at all cost” mentality.  We are all in this together.  We must speak with one voice when we say “Never again”.