Cleansing

In my last post I wrote about and incident that happened to me in Amsterdam many years ago. I received an interesting response from Maud (Men's mom) that got me thinking about why I wrote the post.

I have told a few people the story over the years but the responses haven't been helpful. For many Canadians World War 2 is "just history" and happened "somewhere else". We usually know of someone who lost a relative but overall that time is distant.

In Europe it is different. The history is remembered and still plays a part in people's lives. Last year a bomb dating from the War was found and roads and two runways at an airport had to be closed. In Haarlemmermeer people still remember the 10 men killed as a reprisal for the death of a German soldier.

When I started writing this blog I didn't dig too deep into my history for stories to write. Even when I did I avoided the tough and more personal subjects. Reading other blogs and interacting with people has made me look for some connection with them.

I began to think about writing the story after I had been reading Men's blog for a while. Relearning about the Netherlands reminded me of my travels there. I found I could still relate to the country and people. (I also find this when reading blogs from the UK).

I thought about writing the story several times in the last few months. I would work on it in my head and then get tired of it - partly because it was unpleasant and partly because the time didn't seem right.

Several days ago I mentioned a post I was planning to write but didn't have time for. Maud expressed an interest in that post and I knew it was time to write my story. I knew someone would understand that feeling of facing history.

I have been wanting to get that story out for a long time. It seems appropriate that someone from the Netherlands asked for it, read it, and responded. Thanks Maud.