Dress Rehearsals

Ever since the smash hit Glee hit the airwaves the world has fallen in love with choir, and show tunes. I of course being the perpetual geek loved this stuff anyways , I'm the band geek, the choir nerd. Glee has provided me with the moments that I dream of. You know the one's where you are singing and suddenly the stage lights come up and it's just you on that stage and it could be just you on this planet and you don't care because this is your moment.
Well I never thought I would get one of those but I did.
It happened accidentally. We were practicing in the gym and they were setting up stage lights for tomorrow's concert and it just happened that the gym lights were turned off and the lovely glowy stage lights came up just as my solo started.
It was here that the lesson hit me. 
First of all I had never wanted anything more badly in my life than this solo (it's the female one). So I worked and I got it. So I guess that's a lesson but I'm sure you read the little engine that could at least once during your childhood.
What I really learned today is that we need to learn to lose ourselves.
There will be things that we can never do alone but that we have to. Things like solo's or making tough decisions about your own future. 
So we have to tell ourselves to take a back seat. We have to get rid of everything inside of us that is scared or worried or unsure.
It's funny because when we lose ourselves if only for a few minutes (or bars of music) we arrive back into our bodies slightly different. It's a tiny change but it's for the best and it pushes us towards the day that we won't have to lose ourselves anymore.

I channeled Mercedes Jones by the way. Give me her over Rachel Berry any day. 

Remember?

Though my readership criss crosses the globe most of you have some sort of day of remembrance for veterans. So that's what this post is about but of course with a lessons for my sister twist. Also I will be focusing in on WWII simply because that is the biggest area of my history geekiness.

I live in a pretty amazing country. We have a country wide healthcare system, anyone can love whoever they want and get married too. We used to have an amazing morning radio show. (PS. CBC I hate you for the little "revamp" you inflicted on me). I can enjoy all of this for a few reasons and most of them have to do with war.

I can credit half of my existence to three men. Hitler, Stalin and Winston Churchill. See if Hitler and Stalin had never made that temporary alliance and Hitler had never broken it and then Hitler never of invaded the USSR then Great Britain would of never sent forces there to help with DP camps after the war and my grandparents would of never met.

That would of sucked.

That is a map of Nazi controlled Europe. When I look at that and I see how much we had to lose it terrifies me.People died so we could have a chance at getting the world right again.

We've been in a lot of wars since but few have come close to putting Canada in so much danger. I think thats the biggest testament to humankind. That we will go and try to fight for something we believe in just because it's right.

Peacekeeping, it doesn't often go along with guns or tanks and I'm no advocate of violence. But I am an advocate of respect.

So how is this a lesson to my sister? I'm not sure and maybe I'm just being preachy but I think that knowing where you came from and why your life is how it is, is well important. We lament and celebrate and learn from the past.