reflecting on remembering
It’s taken me til Wednesday to have enough time and peace to collect my thoughts on this one. Not sure where Monday and Tuesday went really. But anyway.
Sunday was the first Remembrance Day taht Aprilia hasn’t gone on parade with one or other of us. We were all a tad agreived at this but there was a manning crisis for a Red Cross duty which required both me and Duke to be at Wombwell with insufficient notice for me to sort out babysitting for a full day (ie from 7:30am til 7pm!) so she had to come with us. The event organisers had a 2 minutes silence and it was interesting to people-watch as it went on. There were adults (old enough to know better) stood casually whispering to their mates, it made me wonder why they just hadn’t sat in their vans and trailers if they didn’t care rather than disturbing those who did. There were teens (who you could maybe excuse) stood smartly silent. And next to me 3 little girls, one who understood just a little and two who followed her lead and stood silently by, without understanding why. I found myself gently explaining to these little girls about men and boys the age of those competing and enjoying life to the full at the event going off to war so that we could enjoy our freedom. It got me thinking about freedom. Freedom to be Jewish, Moslem, Christian or not. Freedom to travel within our country without carrying ID if we choose to. Freedom to educate as we see fit for our child without interferance.
Tonight I’d planned on doing some form of activity based around Remembrance with the Rainbows (well, okay it was orriginally planning for last week but I was far too busy enjoying good food and good company!) but I struggled to find anything from a British perspective suitable for my mainly 6 year old group. Plenty for older ones to do in a class setting. Heaps of Veterans Day stuff emblazoned with Stars and Stripes or maple leaves. But nothing that was really for us. So I decided on a slightly different tack. Peace. Not in a global sense, I don’t think they are equipped to really understand that, but in the sense of pulling together not against each other, of dealing with arguements constructively not destructively, of accepting differences. That’s a lot to fit in an hour!!
