Remembrance Day

This evening I spoke to two Winnipeg friends via telephone. Both found it strange that James and I had to work today. One went so far to say that it seemed "disrespectful." I myself have been quite puzzled that, of all places, Ottawa, with all its pomp and circumstance, would be the city where working/studying on Remembrance Day is the norm. Perhaps it's because otherwise the ceremonies would be flooded with locals, and then how would they accommodate us all? I guess not all offices were open, because OC Transpo service was reduced to "holiday schedule."

Sometimes I feel like a lone pacifist, surrounded by a sea of DND buildings. My longstanding inside joke with James has been "all roads lead to DND." That's because in our first two weeks here in 2000, as I was getting acquainted with downtown, it seemed that on every corner was a Dept. of National Defence office. Across from every other corner on which stood a Tim Horton's. I was probably just running around in circles.

Nevertheless, I did donate to the Legion and wear a poppy. The man volunteering at the table in the entrance of Loeb pinned it to my jacket, and did he ever do a great job, 'cause it's still there! Also, I did watch part of a documentary yesterday evening on the Vampire Dugout from World War I.

Aside from that, my thoughts turned briefly to literature I've read that addresses war. Three books that stick out in my mind:

• L.M. Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside - depicts life during WWI primarily from the perspectives of females--mothers, sisters, and daughters--who are "keeping the faith" at home while their men go off to war (summary). One of my favorite characters died in this novel.
  
• Charles Yale Harrison, Generals Die in Bed - stark, simple sentences, naturalistic symbolism (if I correctly remember my litcrit terms; summary).
• Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun - I read this novel for a first-year Psychology class (Prof. Marcuse believed in interdisciplinarity, I guess), and it haunts me still. The story of a soldier who is nothing but a shell, no arms, no legs, hardly a face, but his mind still works. He communicates in Morse code, but when hospital staff finally understand what he wants, they can't comply, and they resort to sedating him (plot summary).