A Veterans' Day walk in the woods

The kids didn’t have school yesterday, and although we didn’t do anything overtly related to veterans, we were all conscious of the significance behind the day off.

For me, it was interesting to see how many of my Facebook contacts wrote posts yesterday in honor of specific people in military service and reminded me that even though my closest circles include few recent veterans, we’re just “two degrees of separation” in myriad directions.

And Holly reminded us several times that we should all be thinking of Great-Grandpa John, Rick’s grandfather, on Veterans Day; he was a World War II vet and was buried with his military medals last February.

What we did do, after a quiet morning during which I worked on an article under deadline, Holly played school and Tim read, was take a short hike around the Fairy Pond in Concord. (I usually call it by the more dignified name of Brister Hill, but as my father pointed out to me yesterday afternoon, it’s not called Brister Hill, which may explain why I’m the only one who refers to it as such. Brister Hill is on the opposite side of the street. So I’ll need to swallow my dignity and call it Fairy Pond like everyone else does.)

Many people close to me, and almost anyone who reads my blog, know of my ongoing quest to get my kids to do more hiking. Sure, they like time outdoors, but usually in the form of playing touch football in the yard or picnicking on the lawn. Getting them to combine nature with exertion is an ongoing struggle.

Yesterday it wasn’t that hard, though. In part, this was probably because I didn’t make a big deal of it. I didn’t insist or implore. I just asked, “Want to go for a walk in the woods? Maybe that trail we did last fall in Concord, where I took the picture of the two of you dipping your walking sticks in the pond?”

They remembered, and they wanted to try it again, though the recollection was also followed by several minutes of debate as to whether the day we went there last year was the same day a park ranger told us we couldn’t walk around Walden Pond with our dog and we also couldn’t walk around Walden Pond while leaving our dog in the car, a rule none of us could understand. (“I went to the woods because I wanted to live canine-free…”)

So we drove to Concord and spent 45 minutes on the trail. The kids found walking sticks again and scampered up the steep hillsides, then slid down on a slippery scrim of oak leaves. We saw ducks in Fairy Pond and a 5-member arrow of Canada geese flying overhead. (“Where are they going again?” Holly asked. As I said, my kids are not exactly precocious as naturalists.)

After the walk, we drove to Bedford for Tim to get a haircut, and then had hot chocolate at Starbucks.

I expend so much time and so much breath trying to get my kids to join me for activities like hiking in the woods of Concord. Yesterday they agreed to do it with very little discussion, maybe because I didn’t introduce the idea with a great deal of discussion – just casually suggested it. And the haircut and hot chocolate underscored, I hope, the idea that going for a hike doesn’t need to be a major or time-consuming or tiring activity. It’s just an enjoyable thing to do on a sunny cool fall afternoon.

At least it was for me. And I hope for them as well.

Veterans Day

It’s Veterans Day and the kids are home from school. I’m ruminating on the question of how much they – or I – understand about Veterans Day and how much they – or I – are appropriately observing it.

Veterans Day is so different now from when I was their age. Back then, veterans seemed like very old or very remote people, and wars were historical events. Growing up, I thought American involvement in wars had been relegated to history. I never imagined wars going on during my lifetime – or a Veterans Day that meant honoring your neighbors, peers and acquaintances rather than elderly men who did something a long time ago.

But much has changed, and I was probably wrong in my perceptions back then even without those unexpected changes. Now, Veterans Day finds us acquainted with soldiers at all level of involvement. Rick’s grandfather is 90 years old and survived the Normandy invasion. Men we know at church served in Vietnam and Korea. Men and women far younger than me – and not much older than Tim, it often seems – are returning from combat or just now being sent out. Though the kids aren’t close to any military troops enough to hear their stories of war, Tim could easily name a dozen adults he knows who are or have been enlisted.

As with some other holidays, like Martin Luther King Day, the challenge is to make this a day of observance and remembrance rather than just a day off from school. The kids’ school has a nice Veterans Day tradition that takes place on the day before the holiday. They invite local vets to join some of the grades for a singalong and reception. I asked Tim last year how many of the vets he recognized, and he could name a few – some from church, some the elder family members of our friends. He didn’t name any younger veterans, which I think is partly because there aren’t that many young people living in our town and Tim doesn’t know a lot of people in that age group anyway. I think this event at least gives the kids a visual snapshot of who veterans are – some of them, anyway – even if they don’t absorb in depth what these people have done.

Rick just noted an online message board where several people had written “Happy Veterans Day.” He commented, “Veterans Day is not supposed to be happy; it’s supposed to be somber.” But I disagree with him. My feeling is it’s not supposed to be happy or somber; it’s supposed to be a day of gratitude, a day for recognizing and appreciating those men and women who have done something I cannot imagine having the courage to do.

I don’t think my children fully appreciate this – for that matter, I don’t think I appreciate it as extensively as I should – but I’m doing my best to explain it to them and to give them access to the information that will eventually help them understand just what Veterans Day means. As with so many things parents try to impart to children – from the importance of education to religious beliefs to the value of a good book to the worth of making nutritious food choices – sometimes the best we can do is provide them with useful information and let them absorb it in their own way.