Was it just me, or was there a bigger turnout than usual at Remembrance Day ceremonies locally and across Canada?
Attendance at the Richmond event has been sneaking up of late and, when I watched the official proceedings in Ottawa earlier in the morning on TV, Lisa La Flamme was waxing lyrical about the inflated crowd.
With my son in Ladner for a soccer game Wednesday lunchtime, we decided to take in the ceremony there, where men and women of all ages, boys, girls, and a few dogs, packed into Memorial Park.
It was truly heartening to see the uptick in acknowledgment and honouring of the occasion which had, for too many, meant little more than just another day off work or school.
For me — as the second hand edged toward 11 a.m. and I stood in the sombre hush of the two-minute silence, trying to fight back an errant tear — it was about reflecting.
Reflecting, as I glanced at the veterans who lost buddies and families who lost loved ones, on how fleeting and fragile life really is. Reflecting on what’s really important and what’s not. Reflecting on where our energies and passions should really be channeled and how we are often — and I include myself — quick to anger over about the most ridiculous things, instead of appreciating what we have right in front of our eyes.
It was in that moment of reflection that I, bizarrely, with head bowed, couldn’t help but focus on the two, empty, winter-themed,Tim Hortons coffee cups at my feet.
Where am I going with this? Well, apparently, there’s a bunch of folks with skinny latté froth bubbling out their mouths over the lack of Christmas on Starbucks’ cups.
Really? Is this what we’re supposed to get upset about? Who really cares if the coffee giant wants to go all Switzerland on us and stay neutral this “holiday season?”
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be saying “Merry Christmas” all day long when “the season” is upon us and if someone says “Happy Chanukah,” I’ll reciprocate.
But it’s probably one, big genial corporate marketing ploy for their “holiday” drinks that’s now, quite deliberately, got us reflecting way too much on whether a paper cup has Frosty the Snowman on it.
It was then — while still gazing at the Tim’s cups on the muddied, trampled ground, that the skirl of the piper’s lament sounded the end of the two minute’s silence — that I thought to myself how life is about recognizing what you have, choosing which battles you really need to fight and appreciating the freedom people have died for — even the agony of choosing between Tim’s or Starbucks.
It really can’t, however, be about the seasonal markings of a disposable cup.
Alan Campbell is a reporter for the Richmond News
