“What holidays do we have this month Dad?” My daughter’s question came as she was eating her breakfast bagel, smothered in strawberry cream cheese, at the kitchen island.
“Holidays…” I thought to myself as I was preparing my breakfast, “there are no holidays in November.” Then it dawned on me. Ava was looking at the family calendar and noticed the joyful pilgrims on one of the squares marking the American Thanksgiving.
I explained to her that although the United States has a different date for Thanksgiving than we do, we do share a special date in November, November 11th.
I asked Ava to tell me what she knows about Remembrance Day. She shrugged her shoulders.
“You must have learned about Remembrance Day in school?” I pressed.
“I don’t remember” came her reply (no pun intended!).
Not wanting to drop this important opportunity to educate my own child, I asked her if she’s seen people wearing red poppies lately and then it clicked for her, “Oh right, that’s the day soldiers have to fight!” she exclaimed excitedly (confident that she had the correct answer). “Well not exactly Sweetheart, that’s the day we remember that soldiers had to fight for our freedom.”
“Why did they have to fight?”
I should have seen that coming! (and I was already late for work). Recognizing that Ava is seven, I informed her that sometimes we have to fight people who make bad choices. Without getting into the Holocaust (too early in the morning and she is just too young) I told her about a man named Hitler who made really bad choices and who hurt a lot of people and about all the brave Canadians, Americans and Europeans who went to fight him to save those people. I then told her that it is because of soldiers who fight for us that we get to enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today; so we have a day in November when we remember these brave soldiers and give thanks to them for protecting us.
In that moment, my heart filled with gratitude. I am so grateful that I live in the most amazing country in the world. I am free to teach my children about our faith; they have access to education, opportunities and a hopeful future that so many people in this world will never experience. We are blessed beyond blessed.
I even have the freedom (the luxury) of sitting in my living room and judging politicians who send our men and women off to war. I get to argue, in the safety of my home, about which war is a “just war” or whether or not we as a nation should get involved.
I enjoy this freedom, this luxury, because someone else paid the price.
This freedom I enjoy demands of me a responsibility. Firstly, to use my freedom to do great things in this life; to make the world a better place. Secondly, it demands of me the responsibility to be grateful. It is to the men and women who do not get to choose which war to fight, but whose boots hit the ground in other countries that I owe my gratitude.
It is because of you that I am free today and it is because of you, my daughter can ask questions about holidays in November while she eats her bagel smothered in strawberry cream cheese.
