Can you imagine?

(Copied from my site) I know. I'm not supposed to be here. But this is really important. I need a favor. I need you to imagine something for me. I mean really stop and imagine this clearly in your mind. Don't just read ahead to see what silly point I'm trying to make. If you're in a hurry, don't read this now. Read it when you have a few precious moments. I want you to think about a person that you really love. REALLY think about them, and how they make you feel when they're around. Say their name to yourself. Right now. This second. Appreciate what they bring you in your life. Let the warmth of that feeling wash over you. Now imagine someone swooping in and taking that person away from you. Right now. Think about how you'd feel RIGHT NOW if suddenly that person you love was no longer there. And you're not sure if you'll ever see them again. ******* Now I want you to imagine your home. Doesn't matter if it's a shithole apartment in the city, a duplex in the 'burbs, or an Estate in the country. Imagine the space where you live. Climbing into your bed. Perhaps even cuddling up to the person that you were thinking of above. Imagine playing with your children, or cooking a meal with your lover. Enjoying a glass of wine or hot cocoa on a cold winter night. Celebrating a holiday. Or just doing your own thing. Going about the business of life. FEEL how safe a place it is for you. How familiar it is. Now imagine somebody walking into where you are right now, and taking all that away from you. You're sitting in front of your computer right now, reading this, and someone walks in and tells you that you no longer have access to your home. It's gone for now. And perhaps you'll never see it again. ******* Now imagine what it would feel like having to kill someone. Someone you've never met. You know nothing about them. You live in constant fear for your life, and the lives of the people around you. Don't imagine the de-sensitized Hollywood version of this. I want you really experience how you think you might feel if you stood up right now and shot the person beside you in the head. Imagine being cold for weeks on end, crawling through mud. No sleep. No comfort. Your loved ones, your home, your life a distant memory. And imagine a pretty good chance you'll never get any of it back ever again. ******* Tomorrow, November 11th, is Remembrance Day here in Canada. It's the day we're supposed to remember the men and women who gave up everything they held dear to serve their country, in wars past and present. They gave their families, their careers, their lives. Some of them chose to. Others were forced to. But that act of Remembering, and even THANKING those people for what they gave up gets shrugged off more and more by the general population as the years go by and the reality fades. Chances are, if you're reading this, you've never known what it was like to live through Conscription (the Draft, for my friends south of the border). You've never had to face the decision to lay down your life for your country to defend ideals. We simply don't understand it. We can't really feel it. We've never experienced that kind of hardship. It had become something that we can only imagine as some kind of distant, Hollywood-inspired drama that we shrug off when the pop-corn runs out and we're wandering back to our SUV and heading over to the cafe for a double-latte. But those people that gave up their lives and loved-ones are the reason that kind of hardship isn't part of our experience. So, The next time you have the chance to express an opinion, The next time you get to go and vote, The next time you take your spouse and children on vacation, The next time you sit and look up at the sky with someone you love, The next time you get to climb into a warm bed, The next time you have to get up at some stupid hour to go to a job you say you hate, Remember how fortunate we really are, and that we owe people a serious debt of gratitude for what they gave up. Regardless of what country you're in. Don't forget to REALLY remember. Lest we forget.