....Sew On Their Backpacks?Last week was it was 'all-convocations-all-the-the-time' at the still (sort-of)Public Institution/Real Estate Corporation where I ply my trade.
And one of the students that spent time TA'ing in a course of mine came by to say hello on her way to the ceremony.
She had just returned from a month in Europe.
We got talking a little bit about all the great things that young people see and do.
One of the things she liked best was the 'Church of Bones' in Prague, which is not as bizarre as it seems because it's sort of an inside joke given the subject matter of the course she helped teach.
Anyway, I tried to let things run on their own and not to talk too much about my own glory days but there was one thing I had to ask her.
"Do kids, especially American kids, still sew Maple Leaves on their backpacks," I asked.
This was a practice that was hugely popular back when I was doing my own limited vagabonding a generation ago.
'Sure,' she said. 'And lots of Canadians do it too.'
Which got me to thinking, what with all the the talk about how our troops "finally have a mission that will make Canadians proud" - type stuff that is going on these days what with no more of that wimpy peacekeeping.... 'cause we're on the offensive now...... buildin' nations and democracy and Tim Horton's while ignorin' the Geneva conventions...... and consentin' to civilian bombin' missions....and takin' part in renditions and all that......
Whoops.
Sorry.
Didn't mean this to veer off into rantville again on this one. It's just that I really do wonder what flag my own kid, who is now 13, will be sewing on her pack when she goes off to traipze around the world six or seven years or so?
Assuming, of course, that something like that is still even remotely possible by then.
And will she have to speak non-stop French in an effort to make sure that nobody mistakes her for a Fortress North American?
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Antonio Zerbisias asked a similar question about journalists working in trouble spots recently.
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