A Hometown Honours and Remembers

A little over a week ago yellow ribbons started popping up all over town. Driving past the elementary school the day after Halloween I figured someone had decided to prank the town with a prettier version of toilet paper. Every fence post on the block plus of chain link fence had a lovely yellow ribbon tied to the top of it and was fluttering in the afternoon breeze. For a prank it was a pretty nice one.

I continued through town, wondering. Ribbons on streetlights. Ribbons on trees. Ribbons on sign posts. Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons. Random ribbons. Rows of ribbons. But yellow ribbons everywhere.

Then my daughter came home from school with a ribbon. A Canadian soldier who had grown up here and gone to her school had passed away in Afghanistan. (That’s a nice way of saying he was killed in the war.) At that point, only days after his death, the city had been covered with 1000 ribbons. Since then many more have popped up to join the first 1000, several of them with small Canadian flags tucked under the ribbon. The amazing part is that I have never seen anyone place one of these ribbons other than my daughter who with great thought and care tied one on the tree in our front yard.

This man has been honoured over a thousand times over in our city and stepping outside or even looking outside one’s window brings his sacrifice to mind. Today, we remember all soldiers and particularly those who were unable to attain the status “veteran.”

How will you remember and honour those lives?

Novels Remembering World War II

By coincidence, I happened to read two great novels in the past few weeks that both use World War II as their setting. One in England and the USA, the other in Germany. One narrated by a female reporter, the other by Death, himself. Both stellar.

First I read The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. This is the story set in England and the East coast of the USA. (With a short trip through Germany and France.) The story follows Frankie, a female American reporter, who broadcasts news from England to those in the US. When a friend is killed during a typical, nightly bombing of London, she takes up her friend’s quest to show the world what is happening to the Jewish people. (This was before the world knew what was really happening with the Jewish people in Germany and German occupied territories.) Off to Germany she goes with a portable recorder to record voices, not knowing what she will do with them, just knowing that it is important to record them.

Meanwhile, back on the East coast of the US, a small town is going about their everyday lives, wondering/disbelieving/believing that the war will reach their shores. And in the midst is a rule-honouring Postmistress who does something ‘wrong.’ But truly, this story is not about her and her minor misdeed. In fact, the prologue gives readers an unfair expectation of the book and what the story will hold. That aside (don’t bother reading the prologue if you like), the book is a fantastic story of war, love, family, community, and identity. If you liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, you will likely enjoy The Postmistress.

The second book was The Book Thief by Markus Zusuk. While classified as YA (young adult), this is a thick book that also appeals to adults. While narrated by Death (who has a very distinct and wonderful voice as well as way of seeing things), it truly follows the story of a poor, young, foster girl, dubbed ‘the book thief’ by Death due to her love of reading and her unlawful ways of getting reading material to satiate her love of the written word. While a member of the mandated Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany, this girl has another secret other than her ill-gotten books, and that is the Jew hidden in her basement.

A wonderful story about coming of age, secrets, war, friendships, and making due with little. If you liked the quirks of The Giver, you will probably enjoy The Book Thief.

Today, pick up one of these books and remember those who died and fought (and are fighting) for what we have today–and part what we have is the freedom and safety to write and read about life, war, society, governments, and more.

We are a privileged lot and I am forever grateful and thankful for what we have.

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Writers and War

It is Remembrance Day in Canada. (Veteran’s Day for y’all Americans.)

Lest We Forget

As a Canadian, peace is one of the most important things in my life and something I value above all else.

To think… all the lives touched by war. All the lives lost. And for what? For freedom. For peace. For ideologies. War changes people, societies, cultures, landscapes and families.

How did I learn to fear war, to value peace? Some of was ingrained through socialization, yes. But it is deeper. I feel war. I empathize with those who have been touched by war. I put myself in the shoes of strangers who have lost their husbands. I feel the fear those soldiers must feel. How though? How do I feel it? How am I able to empathize?

Writers. Writers are part of why I am able to put myself in the shoes of a soldier, a mother, a child. It can be something simple like John McRae’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ or it can be something disturbing like Timothy Findley’s ‘The Wars’ or even something light like Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows  look at life after war in ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.’ It can be disturbing artwork along with to-the-point words like in Pascal Croci’s graphic novel ‘Auschwitz,’ a diary like Anne Frank’s, or something more modern like ‘The Cellist of Sarajevo’ by Steven Galloway. All these different perspectives, focuses, people, life, and emotions all add up to someone who has never felt war, doing all she can to prevent it. To fear it.

John McCrae

I bow my head for a moment of silence to remember those who have fought for our freedom and to those who have taken up the struggle to write about war so that those who have never experienced it, can. Allow us to fear it and prevent it.