Like most Canadians, I have generally always come to Remembrance Day with a sense of respect and gratitude for those who have fought wars in order to protect what they -- and we -- held dear. (Boys or men? Canadian tank and soldiers, Vimy 1917) But raising kids, my perceptions have shifted some. Today during the two minutes of silence I was thinking about what I want for my boys. I do want them to be the kinds of kids who stand up against injustice, people who do things not just out of self-interest but out of strong beliefs. But of course, I also want them to be all right. When I read about Cpl. Shane Jones not being able to access treatment for PTSD he acquired during military service, I get angry. I know about PTSD personally, and it changes your relationship to the world, and not for the better. It takes a lot of hard work to recover from trauma. And I cannot believe that we may be denying our soldiers the basic care to help them get their lives back, when they have altered their own in order to follow through on what our government has committed to internationally. On a more basic level, I think I have made the transition from seeing soldiers as people who take care of us, to seeing myself as someone who takes care of soldiers. They look like sons to me, not uncles and fathers. I'm wondering if any of you feel the same way today. ( Photo:  Canada. Dept. of National Defence [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)