It is November 11th.  At breakfast my 13 year old prompted me as I recited "In Flanders Fields".  The poem breaks my heart because somehow it seems to invite holding a grudge and continuing the quarrel.  So many soldier boys lying dead already

As a Canadian doctor my heart goes out to the author who gave his heart and soul on the front line to patching up fallen soldier boys.  How possibily could he invite us to take up the quarrel?

Or perhaps if I could ask him in person, he would say he meant the struggle to overcome hatred and war itself.

I just do not know.

I work with many military doctors and nurses and they show me pix of front line surgical tents in Afganistan in the very present.   My heart is with all military medical personal as they volunteer to put themselves in the fray and bring what aid they can, regardless of who is 'foe' or what side god is on.

But what do you suppose Dr. McCrae meant when he wrote the last stanza?

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

As a Canada