Posting comments about Veterans Day or Memorial Day is a challenge I often skip in favor of a short blog entry about something else. There is just so much that I’d like to talk about, and my self-imposed “word-count mercy rule” of 500-750 words (you’re welcome) pretty much rules out 95% of the content.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people confuse Veterans Day with Memorial Day, and vice-versa. So I appreciate the approach I grew up with in England, where the equivalent of both Memorial Day and Veterans Day was rolled into one slot on the calendar, November 11, simply known as “Remembrance Day.”

World War One hostilities (The Great War, The War to End all Wars) formally ended “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” and the red poppy (papaver rhoeas) – which grew in abundance on the site of Flanders Field, around Ypres – was adopted as the symbol of remembrance, along with the poignant phrase, “Lest We Forget.”

VETERANS: The willingness to serve assumes the willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice. So I believe it is appropriate to also honor our veterans in the context of the poppy.

And, for me, the image of the poppy will always be associated with a vision of the horrific carnage of WWI trench warfare, and the savage waste of so many young and beautiful lives. So I also believe it is appropriate to honor those currently serving in the armed forces by asking hard questions of those who send them into harms way. Because it is in hating war so much that I show my support for those with the courage to wear the uniform.

A MOVIE YOU SHOULD SEE: With that in mind, with the fact of it being November 11, and with the lives of so many fine young people still in the balance today, I’d like to recommend the difficult yet profound movie, My Boy Jack (2007), a pitch perfect story based on Kipling’s famous poem, and his own son’s service in WWI.

Rudyard Kipling, Britain’s best-loved writer, was an enthusiastic nationalist, an outspoken hawk, and a father who loved his son deeply. “My Boy Jack” does a great job of illustrating the dramatic tension between the forces of politics, commerce, demagoguery, and pride that so often drive nations to wantonly sacrifice their young, and the repercussions of such skewed values and priorities in the lives of real people.

BACK TO ME: So I’m sure you can sense how conflicted I am, how my celebration of freedom sometimes clashes with my love for all human life, and why I often refer to myself as an “almost pacifist.”

If you’re a veteran, then accept my thanks for your courage and your service. If you are active in the military, then please understand that my appreciation for what you do is often going to be expressed in terms of hard questions for those who put you in harm’s way.

Because God poured his life into all of humanity through Jesus, because life is so beautiful, and because I am always grateful – DEREK