Veterans Day

Georgio O'Keeffe "Oriental Poppies" 1928

Typically, when I hear the words "Veterans Day",  my mind wanders to images of poppies (paper or real), bayonets, and a bunch of old fellas dressed in their old uniforms sitting around chatting about hard times past... but this year, I am updating the image. I always felt a sense of respect concerning this day but now I feel connected. Veterans are not just "old fellas". They are also "young fellas". War is current. It's tentacles are long and far reaching, across seas and across time. We remember those that made it and those that didn't.

In New Zealand, we commemorate Anzac Day. It's pretty much the same thing as Veterans Day, or as they call it in the Commonwealth, "Remembrance Day"- just on a different day of the year. And we make cookies called "Anzac Biscuits". My heritage being what it is, I feel like Anzac Biscuits are appropriate on a day like today.  Unfortunately, with my husband flying to Utah for the BYU conference this weekend and the rest of my family scattered across 3 separate continents, I'm not sure who I'd be making them for.

Anzac Biscuits are said to have been made by soldier's wives during World War I. They were sent to the young men overseas as the ingredients didn't spoil easily and they travelled well. These days we send my brother boxes of Toffee Pops and Pineapple Lumps.

As I drink my delicious Starbucks Spiced Apple drink (oh so good), in the comfort of the bookstore, and reflect on how many times I've complained this week about my feet being sore and my back being sore and not having enough time to write and think and work on my projects because I work, wait for it.... a whole 4 days this week! ... I wonder if I even have a tenth of what it would take to be a woman in the early 1900's. When waitressing seems like "hard labor" I know I'm taking my life for granted.

 Here's to remembering all the men and women, young and old, who have fought for their lives, and for our rights, and because it was required of them. We remember you. We remember your families. We remember each other and our own imperfect humanity. We remember and we will remember. On Veterans Day. With poppies. Or cookies. Or maybe a story or two. I wish we would remember with lessons learned. With kinder hearts. Wiser hearts. Wiser minds. But we are human, and even that we fail to remember at times.