Helloo0O Ladies and Gentlemen!
Welcome to Graceland Ontario, your one stop location for success
advice from the greats. Today, we’re going to talk about moving on.
Earlier this
morning, I saw the largest military parade to march through Toronto since the Second World War. We’re
talking over 1500 servicemen. And, in Canada, that’s not something you see everyday.
The reason? Today was the 200th anniversary of the Battle of York in
the War of 1812. American gunboats pulled up into Toronto harbour on the morning of April
27th, 1813 and pushed British forces back from the coast. Then, men were landed
on shore, slowly moving Anglo-Canadian and native troops back to their base at Fort York. When the British commander,
Major-General Roger Sheaffe, felt the battle lost, he fought a retreating
action that included blowing up the powder magazine of Fort York; the explosion annihilated the fort and
injured or killed about 250 people, including the American commander, Brigadier
General Zebulon Pike, who were too close.
The Americans
burned York a couple days later before returning to
the U.S.
But, though the
battle was a low point in the city’s history, the parade was one of
commemoration of service; not a bandage of past failure, but a recollection of challenges
overcome.
And that’s what
astonishes me − in talking about this war, from what I’ve seen from both sides,
there’s no animosity. There were some brutal consequences for both the
Americans and the Canadians in the last major, official conflict between them.
But both respect the other now.
To me, it’s the
ultimate show of forgiveness and moving on.
The Canadians,
the Americans, the British and the natives realize the seriousness of the
affair their forefathers were in. But they also know they, more than anything,
fought for peace. Sawing into old wounds won’t do anybody any good. Today, there
weren’t any “Bash the Americans” parties in Canada (to my knowledge) to get back at the
Americans for “wrecking our town” a couple centuries ago. War in general is
either a mistake to start with or a last resort. Turning that into any long-term
hatred’s a waste of everyone’s time.
Just as the War
of 1812 and the Battle of York are ancient history now, so you must recognise
are the pains of your past. Sure, some relationships are still sour years after
a conflict. But is that smart or just an emotional reaction, not allowing
yourself to let go of something that’s long done?
Canada and the U.S. get on pretty well today. But, if we
lived based on our past, we’d be vying to blow each other up. And it wouldn’t
do either one of us a pound of good. As is it with your life. Unless
something’s current, forget it. If a city can forgive being burned down, you
can overcome whatever happened to you. It may not be easy, might take time, but
in the long term, wouldn’t it be better to say, “here’s commemorating the day I
forgave so and so after so many years” rather than “it’s just another day
hating whoever”?
You know it is.
Alex H.
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