Blitz breakfast
This morning we were getting ready for breakfast and Caleigh said "can we pretend..." as she always does. Usually she says "Can we pretend we are eating in a castle? I can be the princess, you be the king and Mommy is the queen". Princesses get old to a Daddy after a fashion, but not if you are a little girl.
Nope, not today. This morning she asked "Can we pretend that we are in England during the war and the German badguys are trying to get us?"
Very cool idea, way better than playing castle. Over breakfast we talked about rationing, air raid sirens and Spam.
American kids have no concept at all about what "hardship" really means, and I'm glad she brought it up so that maybe she can learn to appreciate just how lucky we are to have been born here, where freedom is a God-given right, along with freedom of speech and we, as a nation, are blessed with an incredible supply of food, clean water and top-notch public health. Most of us are fortunate enough to not know what it is like to have your home destroyed by bombing, to lose family members to political death camps, to watch children starve or freeze to death.
I think it is important for all of today's children to study the war. By the war, I mean the Second World War. Many of the people who lived through it are still alive, although dying off at an alarming rate due to the average age, and these folks have things to teach us that we just can't learn from books. About right and wrong, and the idea that sometimes the two can get a little blurry. About personal sacrifice. About working together as one people to get something done.
Right now I'm terribly overworked but when the smoke clears over the winter, I really feel the need to put together an informational website on The War. Some of the items in my collection are just "things", but others tell a very human story and I need to find a way to let the artifacts tell the story. I've got an idea for something interesting festering in my head, and will post here when I think it through a few more times.
Nope, not today. This morning she asked "Can we pretend that we are in England during the war and the German badguys are trying to get us?"
Very cool idea, way better than playing castle. Over breakfast we talked about rationing, air raid sirens and Spam.
American kids have no concept at all about what "hardship" really means, and I'm glad she brought it up so that maybe she can learn to appreciate just how lucky we are to have been born here, where freedom is a God-given right, along with freedom of speech and we, as a nation, are blessed with an incredible supply of food, clean water and top-notch public health. Most of us are fortunate enough to not know what it is like to have your home destroyed by bombing, to lose family members to political death camps, to watch children starve or freeze to death.
I think it is important for all of today's children to study the war. By the war, I mean the Second World War. Many of the people who lived through it are still alive, although dying off at an alarming rate due to the average age, and these folks have things to teach us that we just can't learn from books. About right and wrong, and the idea that sometimes the two can get a little blurry. About personal sacrifice. About working together as one people to get something done.
Right now I'm terribly overworked but when the smoke clears over the winter, I really feel the need to put together an informational website on The War. Some of the items in my collection are just "things", but others tell a very human story and I need to find a way to let the artifacts tell the story. I've got an idea for something interesting festering in my head, and will post here when I think it through a few more times.
posted by MVTCoPete | 6:16 PM
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