Tempest in a Jar

November 11th is a solemn period in which we take time to step back from our ridiculously self-involved consumerist lives of freedom to remember the huge sacrifice it took to get our current lifestyle.
Unfortunately my generation is incredibly self-centered in our approach to this day. We see everything with a cynical eye. Evaluating wether or not we're being manipulated by our enviroment and how it's going to affect us. War to us is a media storm of warped information spewed to us from our television sets from newsbroadcasters like entertainment. Our understanding of the past can be fit into a 30second sound byte commercial with stunning graphics and music. We sit through stale assemblies and observe the silence and hope that we can leave soon because the auditorium seats are really uncomfortable.
Are we truly that uncomfortable with coming to grips with the idea of the older generation being our age and sacrificing they're innocence and lives for something better? That they willingly left all that they knew to go to war? Would we be able to do that? Or would we be content to stay at home and rail against the injustices of society while we sit comfortably in our suburban homes playing x-box and having the image of someone who bucks societies restraints,while thinking to themselves that someone else will clean up the mess thousands of miles away?
We're more freaked out by the price of gas going up because it affects us directly.
If I could I would encourage my generation( and demographic) to travel to Holland and to see the gratitude they continue to have for the sacrifice that Canadians made to help free them. To go to the battle grounds. To visit the concentration camps in the dead of winter and feel the cold cut through you and remember that prisioners stood out in this cold in nothing but a cotton pyjama set. To go to your local legion and sit and listen to the veterans. And maybe it will remind us to set out into our world with hope that things can change. Yes change is uncomfortable and we don't factor in ourselves as often since we're thinking outside of ourselves. It hurts and there are many dissapointments but you're living for something bigger.
To us that are christians, our faith tells us to show defference to the older generations and to affect change through our approach to life. May we never grow cynical and callous to that.

Obviously my own cynicism and frusteration is shinging through. Not everyone in my generation is unaware or unthankful. But lately I've been exposed to more lack of gratitude for sacrifice then I'm comfortable with. After my so called righteous anger receeds I'm just left feeling sad and disheartened. But as I watch the coverage of rememberance day and the veterans parade winds it ways throught the downtown streets of Ottawa amidst deafening applause, I'm touched by a teenage girl handing roses and hugging veterans and thanking them for what they did. Then I remember that are still those who remember and will never forget.