Paris

Remembrance Day 2015 was a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver. It was the kind of day that made one forget the possibly record setting torrential rainfall of the preceding few days. Perhaps it was that spectacular weather that buoyed my mood into not focusing on recent global turmoil.

We had walked our dog along the False Creek seawall near 11 o'clock. I had wanted to see the fly-past of military aircraft that seems to be a tradition on a Vancouver Remembrance Day. We stopped and observed a vintage bomber fly over the downtown core, followed a few minutes later by a squadron of brightly painted wartime era single-prop planes. I remember thinking how lucky we are in Canada to have been spared a time in history when those planes may have flown over Vancouver intent on dropping bombs.

A pipe band setting up for a parade down Main Street.

Now less than a week later the optimism I was allowing myself to feel imploded with the tragic news affecting Paris (well, everyone really). Does history really need to keep repeating itself by having one faction after another declare that the world has to play by their rules or risk being labeled infidels and condemned to death? The theme to remember here is that such despicable behavior emboldens the resolve of the rational populace to resist such regimes.

On a more encouraging note, we were downtown over the weekend a couple of times and there was a definite sense of camaraderie being displayed with Paris (and France in general) in various light displays, from BC Place to the new Telus Building to the stage lighting at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for the Jerry Seinfeld performance.

BC Place.

The new Telus building in Vancouver.

The stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Saturday night.