Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #492 An ANZAC Day Reflection

Transcript

#492 An ANZAC Day Reflection · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:26
  Speaker 1: In flanders Field, the poppies blow between the crosses, wrote
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: On wrote 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 we are the dead. Short days ago we lived,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: felt dawn, saw sunset, glow, loved and were loved. And
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: 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.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: 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 Public holiday, Long Weekend, Happy Families episode. Today, I
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: wanted to share an Anzac message with you as we
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: commemorate and remember the lives that have been lost and
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: the service that's been given in service of the freedoms
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: that we enjoy. Each year, I struggle around Anzac Day
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: as I try to comprehend the horror of war. The
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: shocking events this year in Ukraine have made it even
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: more difficult to understand just how awful war really is.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: It's made war all the more real as we've watched
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: via technology the loss of homes, the loss of families,
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: the loss of life, and to me, the loss of
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: humanity that should exist in people's hearts but has been
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: replaced in far too many people with a desire to
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: hurt and maim and kill. It's been devastating to watch.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Each year as I've gotten older, the concept of war
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: and the pain and the loss that it entails becomes
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: harder and harder for me to fathom. But each year
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: I pause, and I recognize that we need to think
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: about war. That may sound provocative and maybe even a
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: bit confusing, but let me explain what I mean. I
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: believe that we need to talk with our children about war.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: We need to feel that heartbreak, that pain, that unspeakable
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: confusion about being in a world where war occurs and
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: freedom and peace are lost. We need days like Anzac
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Day for reflection. We need pain to exist in our
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: hearts over the horrors of war and the devastation that
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: it reeks on the world. Some people will say, well,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: I don't want to think about such awful things. I
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: don't want to go there, and I get that I
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: probably prefer not to as well, if I'm perfectly honest
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: about it. But and here's the provocative thing that I
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: want to say. I don't believe that any of us,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: not one of us, has the license to avoid thinking
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: about what war has done and how people have suffered
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: as a result of dictators and despots and greedy governments
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: intent on grabbing power at any costs. In fact, I
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: believe that remembering and thinking about war is among the
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: things that we must think about regularly if we're to
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: take our freedom seriously and not for granted. We should
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: not avoid thinking about the price that so many have
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: paid for our peace and freedom. We should not avoid
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: thinking about the price that so many are now paying
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: because they live in places where peace and freedom are
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: now suddenly no longer available. We should not avoid thinking
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: about the lives that have been given, the lives that
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: have been lost. So that we can carelessly go about
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: our days. When we have some appreciation of the sacrifice given,
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: of what so many have done for us, I think
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: we live better. So May we always remember those who died.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: May we always remember the price that so many have
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: paid for the peace and the freedom that we, our partners,
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: our children, our families enjoy. May we teach these sacred
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: things to our children so they can honor the freedoms
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: that are ours and that are theirs, this Anzac Dame,
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: lest we forget