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#749 Lest We Forget; An Anzac Reflection From Justin · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:26
  Speaker 1: In flanders Field. The poppies blow between the crosses row
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: on row that mark our place, and in the sky
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the larks, still bravely singing fly scars, had emitted their guns.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Below.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: We are the dead.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset, glow,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: loved and were loved. And now we lie in flanders fields.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Take up our coal with the foe to you from
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: favoring hand. We throw the torch be yours to hold
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: it high. Is here break faith with us who die.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: We shall not sleep. Low poppies grow in plans fields.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Hi, this is doctor Justin Coulson on a special Anzac
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Day Happy Families episode Today. I wanted to share an
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: ANZAC message with you as we commemorate and remember the
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: lives that have been lost and the service that's been
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: given in service of the freedoms that we enjoy. Each year.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: I struggle around Anzac Day as I try to comprehend
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: the horror of war. The shocking of events in Ukraine
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: have made it even more difficult to understand just how
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: awful war really is. It's made war all the more
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  Speaker 4: real as we've watched via technology, the loss of homes,
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  Speaker 4: the loss of families, the loss of life, and to me,
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: the loss of humanity that should exist in people's hearts
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: but has been replaced in far too many people with
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  Speaker 4: a desire to hurt and maim and kill. It's been
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: devastating to watch. Each year as I've gotten older, the
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: concept of war and the pain and the loss that
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: it entails becomes harder and harder for me to fathom.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: But each year I pause, and I recognize that we
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: need to think about war. That may sound provocative and
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: maybe even a bit confusing, but let me explain what
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  Speaker 4: I mean. I believe that we need to talk with
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  Speaker 4: our children about war. We need to feel that heartbreak,
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: that pain, unspeakable confusion about being in a world where
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: war occurs and freedom and peace are lost. We need
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: days like Anzac Day for reflection. We need pain to
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: exist in our hearts over the horrors of war and
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: the devastation that it reeks on the world. Some people
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: will say, well, I don't want to think about such
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: awful things. I don't want to go there, and I
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: get that I probably prefer not to as well, if
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: I'm perfectly honest about it. But and here's the provocative
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: thing that I want to say, I don't believe that
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  Speaker 4: any of us, not one of us, has the license
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: to avoid thinking about what war has done and how
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: people have suffered as a result of dictators and despots
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: and greedy governments intent on grabbing power at any costs.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: In fact, I believe that remembering and thinking about war
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  Speaker 4: is among the things that we must think about regularly
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: if we're to take our freedom seriously and not for granted.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: We should not avoid thinking about the price that so
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  Speaker 4: many have paid for our peace and freedom. We should
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: not avoid thinking about the price that so many are
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: now paying because they live in places where peace and
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: freedom are now suddenly no longer available. We should not
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: avoid thinking about the lives that have been given, the
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: lives that have been lost. So that we can carelessly
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: go about our days. When we have some appreciation of
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: the sacrifice given, of what so many have done for us,
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  Speaker 4: I think we live better. So may we always remember
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: those who died. May we always remember the price that
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: so many have paid for the peace and the freedom
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  Speaker 4: that we our partners, our children, our families enjoy. And
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  Speaker 4: may we teach these sacred things things to our children
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: so they can honor the freedoms that are ours and
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  Speaker 4: that are theirs, this Anzac Dame, lest we forget