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©Ann Mason August 2002
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Soldiers fight in real wars, while children view all kinds of violence on television and movie screens and play violent video games. But soldiers see the truth, deal first hand with the horror and pain of violence. Unfortunately becoming desensitised by all they see the children are captured by the excitement and disregard the pain and suffering. While the world continues to seek resolution to conflict using violent means and promotes violent drama and visually reproducing and showing it to the children then the violence will continue. Children need to see some different dramas and play different games, ones that are peace-building. This story for all ages to enjoy and share together contains all the peace-building elements:
The Tear Shedding Sailor Dedicated to a special tear shedding sailor whom I met upon the road.
It was late in the afternoon and sunlight dancing in through the window reflecting upon the television screen made it difficult for Toby to view his favourite cartoons. Crashing against the front door his mother fumbling keys eventually unlocked the door and managed to drag herself and her piles of shopping bags into the house. “Hi mate!” his mother muttered as she hurriedly moved toward the kitchen. Toby didn’t respond. His attention remained totally upon the cartoon images furiously crashing swords and firing laser guns in defence of their threatened worlds. Toby bounced to his feet, slashed the air with his make believe sword and echoed the words he had heard only moments before she had walked into the house: “Destroy the invaders!” Toby’s mother, who had never bought her son toy guns or swords, watched the display of might then quietly approached her five year old and pulled him onto her lap as she sat in her chair. “Do you really mean those words?” she questioned as she hugged him and stoked his forehead. “Mean what?” Toby replied grabbing his mother’s face in his small hands then directly looked in to her eyes. “Do you want to kill?” Again she tried to get Toby to explain his actions. He said nothing and just gazed into her eyes and sunk deeply into the warmth of her loving embrace. Sensing it maybe time to perhaps change the topic she added: “Your great Granny is coming to stay for a few days. Will you help me take care of her?” “Granny!” Toby smiled as he responded. He knew his great grandmother would come with gifts and have lollies stashed in her bag, and she would never tell his mother she had them. He liked keeping any of her secrets. “Yes Toby, Nana is going away for a few days and she has asked me to mind Granny. I know you would like her to stay with us.” Being very frail Granny lived with her daughter, Toby’s Nana, and she often experienced bouts of forgetfulness so was unable to live on her own. The old lady did not require much attention but needed to be in a safe and familiar environment. Toby’s mother also knew her own mother needed a break from the responsibility of caring for such a dependent person. She knew her grandmother would sit all day my the television and knit, and over the years every family member had been made jumpers and socks, scarves, rugs and beanies out of every colour wool possible. “When is Granny coming?” Toby excitedly asked as he squirmed about. “Hm..any second!” Toby jumped to his feet and ran to the front door just as a taxi driver knocked. He quickly opened the door and ran immediately to his waiting Granny who had remained seated in the back seat of the taxi hoping he would come and help her walk to the house. Winking to her great grandson the old lady carefully placed her hand in her bag then wrapped two lollies in his hands. “Don’t tell your mother!” she begged then motioned for him to carry her bag to the house. Placing one foot slowly in front of the other Granny edged her way to the door. “Hay girl?” she beckoned her granddaughter, “I’m not going to be a bother now. Just get me a comfy chair and put me by the tele, make me lots of cuppas and all will be fine.” Her raspy voice continued to mumble words that Toby did not clearly understand but he sensed she wanted him to sit by her feet. Toby’s mother helped the driver carry the suitcase inside and she left for the kitchen to put the kettle on. “Get my knitting sweetness?” Granny requested. "In my bag! Just undo the zip! It’s in the inside part!” She waved her wrinkled arms about as Toby rummaged through her entangled belongings searching for her knitting bag. Once found Toby carefully placed the bag into her broad lap and sat again at her feet resting his face against her knees that were concealed by her long fleecy black skirt. “Your great grandfather Toby…” Granny quietly uttered as she opened her bag and pulled out needles and blue wool. “….you look so much like him.” Toby had seen a photograph on his mother’s mantel piece of a man standing alongside a lady. She had told him who the couple were but he did not recognise anyone. The lady who was wearing in a shiny white dress had a long white veil over her hair and she was holding flowers. Neither she nor the man were smiling and they seemed to have glared straight at the cameraman taking their picture. There was little resemblance between the old lady sitting before him and the one in the picture. He glanced at the photograph and pointed his finger at it. “Is that you Granny?” he questioned seemingly bewildered by the possibility. “I was so young then Toby. Your great grandfather was only twenty years old when we were married and then he left me.” A tear trickled down her cheek and then it splashed onto her knitting soaking into it. “Granny…..I don’t know that man! Where is he?” Toby inquired unsure of why this particular person was not alive and here with them also.
“He went to
war darling!” Her words were slowly and painfully allowed out.
Toby, sensing his great grandmother’s grief, sat quietly and clung tightly
around her knees. After a few moments of silence his curiosity won over. “Oh my dear dear child,” Granny began pausing only to wipe her nose. “War is not somewhere you should go…or anyone should for that matter.” Puzzled by the confusing words that were also unexpected, Toby climbed onto her lap and stared straight into her eyes and sought further explanation. “Granny, did you go too?” “Oh no darling, I stayed home but some brave women went as nurses.” Granny’s explanation was providing no clearer meaning about the war place she was referring to. Toby pondered her words for some time as his great grandmother gently and lovingly patted his head. He knew what nurses were because he had seen them at the hospital when he last visited his grandmother when she had had surgery so at least that image was familiar to him. “It’s a long way away then?” he continued to question. “Oh it wasn’t then darling. If it wasn’t for the soldiers and sailors fighting in the Pacific we would all be eating rice.” Now Toby was totally bewildered and unable to fathom any meaning in her words and besides he liked eating rice. He decided to ask no more questions. Perhaps he would explore further explanations when he was alone with his mother later that evening when it was his bed time. “Here’s your tea!” Toby’s mother pulled a small table close to her grandmother and placed a biscuit alongside the steaming china cup. “Now Toby, let Granny be. Stop bothering her with your questions…and turn off those ridiculous cartoons. Granny would prefer to watch a movie or the tennis.” “It’s fine dear!” Granny was more intent upon picking up the stitches she had dropped from her knitting needle. “I want to finish this for Toby!” Unsure of what was being created amongst the clicking and clacking, Toby and his mother decided to leave the old lady at peace and continue on with what they had been doing before she had arrived. A sudden explosion from the television screen brought Toby to his feet. “Kapow!” he yelled as he bounded about the room swinging his imaginary sword as he had done previously. “I will defend the planet with my life!” These words he repeated after hearing them spoken by one of the screen characters. Granny paid little attention to outburst and remained intent upon finishing the last rows of her knitting. “Done!” she whispered to herself. ”Now just to sew it together!” Within minutes her gnarled but nimble fingers had assembled not a jumper, nor another beanie for Toby….but a figure shaped like a man. Finally she attached two tiny buttons on the face of the figure for eyes. White pants and a navy blue top covered the evenly knitted body. On its head was a small white cap. These old hands had created millions of stitches over the past years and many more seemed destined to still be created. “Toby!” Granny muttered just loudly enough for him to hear above the blasting weaponry being unleashed upon the screen. Amazingly Toby heard her call and turned his head away from the battle unfolding before him. “This is for you darling. It’s your grandfather!” Smiling, Toby moved toward his great grandmother and opened his hands to receive the gift. Examining it closely for some time he eventually asked: “Granny….. how can this be my Grandpa?” “Oh my love! He was a sailor. He went to war just after we were married and he never came back.” “Why?” Toby was even more unsure now of where war was and why his great grandfather, a man he had never met, had gone there, and especially why his Granny had made this strange gift for him. “Come closer, Toby!” Granny beckoned. “Sit here, no not on my lap, my bones are aching today.” Toby sat at her feet and clutching his new toy close to his chest. “You see my dear little man, men went to fight in the war and some, no many, never came back!” “Why?” Toby queried wondering whether these men remained at war because they liked being there. “When will they come back?” Suddenly tears engulfed the aged blood shot eyes of the old lady and she covered her face up with her hands. “Granny, I don’t want you to cry!” Toby exclaimed. “Oh Darling,” she began again after taking a deep breath. “Your Grandpa died defending his country. Many good men died Toby. Many just did not make it home.” “Why?” This word had become the only one available for Toby to use. He still did not understand. Granny pointed at the screen just as another battle began raging. “You see Toby, war is like that! Not just the bad guys die.” “War is a place where people die?” Toby managed to piece together some meaning to her words. “Yes my darling! It is not a good place to be. Swords, bombs and guns kill people Toby.” Granny dragged her tired and dry old hands across her great grandson’s brow and begged: “War is a place for no man or boy or anybody…. not even you! Promise me you will never go!” “Me Granny!” Toby replied as he watched more tears run down his Granny’s cheeks. “Yes you Toby! War must stop! We must find other ways to sort out our problems.” Poor Toby could not quite understand his great grandmother’s plea especially as he was still trying to fathom why his great grandfather was not with them. As he ran to the kitchen to escape the confusion the sailor fell unnoticed onto the floor. Granny silently lifted herself out of her chair and awkwardly bent down to pick it up. “He just doesn’t understand!” she whispered to the woollen sailor. “I pray he never has to know what you know my love.” Easing herself back into her chair she continued her conversation. “You did what you thought you had to do…..I know!” As Granny lay back in her chair tears collected in the corners of her eyes then slowly trickled down her face onto the eyes of her sailor resting on her lap. A deep sleep enveloped the dear old lady and her dreaming returned her to her younger days when her sailor danced and laughed with her. Meanwhile Toby had crept back and sat himself within centimetres of the screen and watched the final moments of the battle that had begun half an hour earlier. But this time, even though the light still distorted his viewing, he thought he saw something familiar amongst the pained faces of the images crashing to the ground. One seemed to be the sad face of his own great grandfather, the same one that appeared in the picture above the fireplace. “Grandpa!” his tiny voice uttered. Immediately Toby turned his head toward his great grandmother and noticed the sailor was tucked safely under her arm. He quietly dragged himself along the floor and upon reaching Granny’s side tried to pull the sailor away. Momentarily Granny stirred but Toby continued to carefully ease the sailor away from her. Running his fingers over its eyes he realised they were wet. “Have you been crying too, Grandpa?” Toby muttered and tightly hugged the woollen sailor. “No more war Grandpa! No more! I promise!” Toby turned the television off and then climbed onto his great grandmother’s lap and curled himself into a ball holding his sailor tightly under his chin. It was time for Toby, too, to drift off into a deep deep sleep and dream of other things. |
