I was enjoying W5 last Sunday, appreciating a story about two young soldiers who had decided to race a car in Newfoundland’s notorious race the Targa. The story led off with two soldiers, one leg, and profiled two young soldiers, Andrew Knisley and Jody Mitic, who had returned from Afghanistan with significant physical challenges as the result of loosing one or both legs.
Having been a physiotherapist in my past life and having had the opportunity to work with amputees, I was very impressed with their recovery. More importantly I was taken with their attitude and their courage. Andrew Knisley and Jody Mitic had no previous experience with racing and the Targa is not for the faint of heart. They wanted however to make a point that being an amputee does not have to be a disability and to raise money and awareness for their cause Soldiering On. I was inspired.
Turn to the commercials. During the airing of this show I was stunned when a new video game was promoted showing an average Canadian female teenager and other players holding machine guns. Graphics exploded around them with the sounds of war. The commercial ended with ‘there’s a soldier in all of us!’ Are you kidding me – this can’t be real I thought to myself. Here we are watching a show regarding the results of war and surviving the consequences and this game encourages players to go to war. I get it – it’s only a virtual situation, yes and is this really what we want our kids to become. I was shocked.
I know, I am ranting. In one hour I witnessed the heroism of Andrew Knisley and Jody Mitic balanced with a thoughtless video game that promotes war.
Rather than being a soldier, I suggest we become peaceful warriors. Peace begins with each of us making peace within. Peace as I have learned is an illusive concept when a good portion of the world are at war with themselves. Knowing this, wouldn’t time and energy be better used in a video game of self-discovery, of having the courage to visit the inner terrain of self and tame the self-critic, of learning to make peace with all the personal demons. Do we really want to be soldiers?
Until next time…
Betty