Edmonton Photographer | Rant

I might be a day or two late and a dollar short with my rant this week. Two days ago was Remembrance Day. I remembered.

When I was a little girl (and I have not yet reached the ripe old age of 30), I remember not having school to observe the sacrifice that strangers that had been born and died years before I was ever thought about had made. We learned in school for weeks before hand about the wars, the soldiers, the lives that were lost and how we were free because of their supreme gift to us.

I remember as the president of my high school standing on stage at our Remembrance Day assembly, proudly wearing my poppy, watching tearfully as the proud, if aging Color Guard from our local Royal Canadian Legion marched into our school gymnasium. Flags held high. Displaying pride you can’t fathom. Those men had seen and experienced more in a few years of their lives than I would in all of my life. For that, I was truly grateful.

But yesterday, I was a little sad. Well really, a lot sad. Jamie had to work. He had to work on Remembrance Day. He isn’t a doctor, or a policeman, out helping to comfort those ill or afraid. He just happens to work under the blanket statement of retail management. He loves his job, and it keeps us well dressed, and in a nice home and vehicle. I don’t long for a doctor, or a policeman. Although, I do wish I had become one or the other, but my artistic side won the battle, and alas, a photographer I was meant to be.

My point being, malls were open yesterday. Outlet stores and shopping centres, wide open for business, customers bustling in and out, purchasing shoes and handbags, cell phones and chocolates. Perhaps even a pair of dress pants, or a baseball hat. Things. Things they could buy on November 10 or November 12. Things they could buy any other day of the year.

I used to get upset when stores were open on the days that we would normally reserve for rest. I would get upset about stores being open on Sundays. Then New Years, and Christmas lost their status as days you devote to your family. I am certain at this point, we could do a poll and ask the world what Good Friday is all about and you would get some blank stares. I get it; we all aren’t Catholics, with stanch Catholic No Meat on Good Friday type grandparents. Heck, we all aren’t Christian either. I get it. Not everyone has to observe everyone else’s religious holidays. I don’t do Hanukah or Ramadan, so shop away on Good Friday and Christmas Day while I am at home, observing. Really, it’s your right. It’s a free country.

This brings me to the very point I wanted to make. It’s a free country. Free, Free, Free. Move where ever you like, marry whomever you like, stay out as late as you like, worship (or don’t) as you like. Tell me or whoever you like about it, in whichever language you like. It’s your life, live it.

But I really think that while we are all doing whatever we like, whenever we like in our free country, we can take a day off from buying toasters and movies to remember how we got the right to live our lives that way. Because wherever you are from, or whatever you do, or whomever you worship, you get to do it here in Canada because countless men and woman you’ve never met put their lives on the line and gave it all up for you. It’s time to actually remember.