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For the Belgians

Day 3,045, 09:30 • Published in Canada Canada

• by Rigour6

Last June, I took a bucket list vacation to Europe with some close friends. We toured the battlefields and cemeteries of Canadian forces in Belgium and Normandy, a deeply moving and meaningful trip. Not a lot of laughs, you understand, but really a very worthwhile experience.

It was my first time in Belgium and I took to the country and its people a great deal. Their ongoing remembrance of Canada's sacrifice is not to be believed if you haven't seen it. We attended the ceremony at the Menin gate in Ypres, an Act of Remembrance which the people there have observed EVERY DAY (with the exception of the years of Nazi occupation) since the 1920s.

The cuisine and beer speak of Belgium well. I have also had occasion to deal with some Belgians professionally, and found them to be an equal mix of good sense and good humour. In short, a pleasure to deal with at all times.

As fate would have it, I was scheduled to fly to Brussels tomorrow. That meeting has now been moved to Paris, and I'll be honest: I don't really want to go. Turns out I'm that much of a coward, to my very great disappointment.

Anyway, I am going. But it's been a sobering reminder of how much I take the security which Canada offers for granted, and how little experience I have with real tragedy.

My sincere sympathies to the people of Belgium at this time.

NxNE, Vol 15, Number 1

Comments

Xichael Day 3,045, 16:06

Unfortunately, we resign ourselves to the fact that these attacks will occur... What the hell has happened to Europe? I went to Europe 6 years ago and it wasn't anything like today...

TemujinBC Day 3,046, 21:53

Interestingly enough, I'm not so sure Canada offers anymore security than any other western nation.

Hope everything goes well, as I recall you've got two kids that will be waiting for you.

Mary Chan Day 3,047, 07:31

~hyuu~

Thanks for sharing. The existence of these tragedies should not be diminished by its distance.

ColinAndrage Day 3,047, 17:51

And yet, I am thankful for that Canada's distance from these tragedies diminishes their existence here.

Rigour6 wrote a personal response to what happened and I'm impressed with his frank admission about how it made him feel. Because I don't have that kind of personal connection to places like Brussels and Paris, my reaction has made me to wonder about about the clash of cultural/ideological values behind the tragedy. I've felt proud that we're raised in Canada to be open minded and welcoming of people from different places with different sets of values but lately that approach feels under threat, even if not so much in Canada directly. Hopefully that gut reaction is a false concern but I still can't help agreeing with some points made by Milo Yiannopoulos:
http://youtu.be/0OAnm0RpPkE

(sorry to bring this to a tasteful and honest article, but there it is anyhow...)

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