If you drive up Highway 3 to Princeton there is a PetroCan station. You stop there for some fuel and then continue on toward the 97, passing Hedley, Keremeos and along the way you stop at “Bears” fruit stand to buy your peaches and then pass through Olalla; eventually hitting a junction, which will take you to Osoyoos ( turn right) or Penticton (turn left).

Penti-tken; translated from the First Nations language meaning: “Ideal Meeting Place” or “A place to stay forever“, is locked in a valley, nestled between two lakes and during years when there is enough precipitation to keep the fires from burning, and the smoke from settling into the valley, it becomes an Oasis for those wanting to sit on a beach and bathe in the mid summer heat after a long day playing in the fresh and warm lake waters.

If you travel along Skaha lake road, you will turn onto Main street and then carry on toward the center of the city, boasting a mall then a Safeway and a pub called the CopperMug. Directly adjacent is a Catholic Church and then behind this building is a little school where children wearing navy and grey will play “four square” and trade “Pokemon” cards while waiting for the recess bell to ring them back into class.

In one of these classrooms is my boy of 13, and as he sits alone at his desk on this typical day, he pulls apart the sandwich which Dad packed and pulls out the ham leaving just the bread and butter and eats his lunch in the quiet of his mind, at his desk in the classroom.

Unbeknownst to him, on the other side of the planet there is war and the cumulative rate of casualties for 2017 have registered over 33,000; children who were at one point in time, intimately savoring their still and peaceful moment, are now being dragged through the ravaging perils of conflict, not understanding the issues that have brought on this terrible siege. These children can only measure dangerous times by the length of silence between gun shots, and it is during those times that they can once again feel God; a God that can soothe their confusion and mend the broken innocence that once was their heart.

Does my boy know that children perish without even knowing why they lived? That so many lives teeter on the edge of a volatile world where natural calamities coincide with man borne conflict? Most likely not…

Here is a boy who sees a world through black and white glasses; the world is a place where he resides and feels only like or dislike, hot or cold, dark sky or daylight, joy or despair…. Mom or Dad, and his choices are not swayed by popular opinion and he will sing the National Anthem like a patriot, never deviating and only honoring because he knows it as a constant; a thread which has weaved it’s way through his life and into his heart and it reminds him that he has woken up into a familiar and loyal world, one that he can trust and love.

His living handicap pales in comparison to those that can never trust their world because this boy can foster the greatest virtue of all: Faith. Faith In his constants, in his brothers and in his world.

But one dreadful day when everything he knows is removed from his life because those that have been assigned to protect him have faltered,then he too will be thrown amidst the tumultuous seas of conflict, searching for his fathers voice and his brother’s playful laughter….. in the fog of a world turned up side down.

Perhaps an endless search but he will not relent. In the trenches of warfare there are no atheists, and his steadfast faith will carry him through until once again he can rest in knowing his world is safe.

In all likelihood my boy will always be cradled in a free and peaceful world, and most likely so will I, and he will always have the luxury of protest without the risk of persecution, and if he so chooses, he will not sing the national anthem or stand with his back to the flag, but, again, he only sees  the world through black and white glasses and prejudice without merit is not even within his intellectual landscape; in a way his limitations have become his greatest strength…. and perhaps our limitless entitlements have become our greatest handicap?

As this boy sits at his desk, a small wind blows the leaves across the schoolyard and into the alley which funnels Moms and Dads away from the school after they have dropped off their precious packages. At the end of the alley, you can turn right toward Duncan and then head down toward the Channel parkway. Away and out of the city.

When you come to the junction, a quick right will set you along Highway 3b, and if you continue along this route a few hundred kilometers, not deviating, eventually it becomes Highway #1 and leads right to the Straight of Georgia. Sheltered by Vancouver island, another journey will traverse you across the island until you reach the vast and salty waters of the Pacific Ocean…

Somewhere on the other side of the Pacific Ocean approximately 16,000 km due west, there might be a boy lost, who looks for his brothers…and perhaps does not find them….

Daddmanwalking here...