It is the ANZAC day long weekend, and this year I can’t remain completely unknowledgeable or ambivalent because I have to take the dawn service.

I never truly engaged with the ANZAC story or really gave it much thought until a few years ago when two events happened, first I moved to the middle east and in the process learnt more about the effect of the wars currently taking place there.  Secondly I fell in love with Vietnam and I went to the war museum in Ho Chi Minh City, a powerful place were I learnt more about the Vietnam War and the part that Australia played.

This what these two experiences taught me about the beast that is called War.  War is a horrible creature on so many levels, War consumes lives and feeds on distress. War has no empathy or forgiveness.  War is insatiable.  In the Gallipoli offensive over 10,000 young Australian and New Zealanders were killed and more than 24,000 were injured, before they withdrew.  War can be defeated.

The ANZAC’s and the soldiers before and after them demonstrated how to defeat War.  They held onto and passed down to future generations the importance of individual dignity, resilience, mateship, courage and community. The ANZAC’s were a group that was representative of multi-cultural Australia; there were Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander soldiers, sons of Greek and Italian immigrants, Chinese miners and female nurses. Together they created a community the demonstrated the best of Australian culture in the worst of circumstances.

This is the challenge that I take from the ANZAC’s, how do I focus on those aspects of community that we still value so highly mateship, friendship, courage, resilience and allowing every-one dignity and a fair go. How do I optimize these characteristics in myself?