What Really Matters

Tonight I am going to go see my first NHL game this season in person as my Detroit Red Wings come to my adopted home of Columbus, Ohio to face the Blue Jackets.  But that is not what is really important today.  Today is Veterans Day, Remembrance Day or Armistice Day depending on where you live and what you like to call it.  The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1918.  Ever since then this day has been celebrated as a day to honor the veterans both living and dead from world war one and all other wars.  To these veterans we owe everything we have, including the opportunity to go to a hockey game and enjoy the sport that we all love.  So I ask you to take two minutes sometime today and say a prayer of thanks for all those veterans who have served and a prayer of safety for those currently serving.  If you happen to see them selling poppies on the street, please buy one or two.  I will leave you with the poem that has become most associated with this day.

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

(Born: 1872 Guelph, Ontario   Died: 1918 Boulogne-sur-Mer, France)

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.