Remembering to serve
Observation of and even more so experience with people with dementia – memory loss – keeps reminding us (pun intended) of the irreplaceable loss that happens when a person gradually, more and more, forgets who they are.
Our identity is inextricably tied to our past. Every person’s life journey of relationships, events, joys, sufferings, work, etc. creates a unique panoramic narrative. For older folks that rich narrative helps them grow wisdom, especially as they have learned from their own successes and mistakes and from those of others. Obviously the precious gift of wisdom is also decimated when the past is forgotten.
What is true of individual persons is also true of cultures and countries. A culture/country is only as strong and resilient and wise as its memory of their past. For example, it is said that large numbers of young people in western countries are not aware of the ignoble history of European antisemitism and the deaths of millions of Jews in the Holocaust, of the Iron Curtain oppression in Europe, of bloody communist revolutions in China and Laos, of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and of Martin Luther King’s message of the equality of all peoples.
Remembrance Day – aptly named – is an opportunity for us to first of all remember the people who sacrificed their lives for their country and for the cause for which they fought. Secondly to remember the families of those who were killed. And thirdly to re-commit ourselves to be a culture determined to remember our past.
Already current events such as ho-hum reactions to antisemitic attacks on Jewish buildings and people are seeming to illustrate that we are in dire need of better remembering. At the very least our education system should ensure that every graduating student has studied at least the history of Canada and the history of the world through the 20th and 21st centuries.
Another suggestion comes from the whole idea of Remembrance Day: we remember the sacrifices of those who served during the war because they were sacrificing themselves for something beyond themselves. It is often said they died for our freedom. They are worth remembering because of their selflessness and because of the worthy cause for which they fought.
Is there anything worth remembering in our day? Are we a culture/nation worth fighting for? Do we have values worth serving and fighting for?
Is this something that has become lost in the divisive culture wars of the past decades? Have we become so polarized that we are unable to agree on what kind of culture/nation and what kind of values we think are worth fighting for?
Could it actually be that we became so polarized because we quit remembering who we were and what we were, and that the resultant cultural dementia left us vulnerable to all kinds of ideas and values that would have seemed foreign to those who fought and died in the wars.
But there’s another angle on this: it is a proven psychological truth that a person feels more drawn to a cause or person or institution if they are asked to contribute to that cause/person/institution. And the more significant the contribution, the more significant the attraction. A simple illustration: a child is more likely to eat vegetables she helped plant and weed and harvest than vegetables pulled out of the fridge. To wit, many of the most patriotic Canadians are those who have served in the Canadian Forces.
But since WWII we have been producing generation after generation of youth who are never asked to make a significant sacrifice for their community or country. Our culture is allowing our youth to take it and our country entirely for granted. Is it any surprise that petty crime/theft is so pervasive that police no longer investigate them? My brother lives in Winnipeg and says that in their neighbourhood you dare not lock your car doors as this only attracts thieves to break the windows to get in.
Moreover as a culture we are not teaching and modeling for our youth the concept that all of us are called to serve and build our communities and nation. To remember on Nov. 11 ought to mean committing ourselves to serving selflessly likewise. As one successful businessman said: “You can be a very successful business leader, but you will be remembered more for how you helped build your community.”
Remembrance Day must never stray from prioritizing remembering the fallen. However there is lots of room to revitalize the day with an emphasis on the current call to serve that our culture is challenging our youth to embrace.