My Brother's take on "O Canada!"

A new use for our national anthem

My brother- perhaps, pondering about life

I find it funny that there is so much talk about our national anthem these days, as the thing is, my brother brought up those two controversial words sometime last month.

I got wind of my seven-year-old brother’s fascination with “O Canada” via my mother on the phone. And my dad retold the story to her.

According to my mom, my brother asked my dad if he had ever sung “O Canada.” My dad said, yes, of course he has, while he probably wondered where this was going. Then my brother told my dad to prove it and sing it for him. So my dad began singing our anthem- I imagine off-key, but regardless he belted it out at my brother’s insistence.

Until that is, my dad go to the now, famously emphasized words: “In all thy sons command,” and my brother made my dad stop. Then my brother triumphantly exclaimed, “See, it says all SONS command, not DADS command!”

[The lyrics to O Canada, from: http://www.jubileequeencruises.ca/images/ohcanadalyrics.jpg]

I can just imagine the gloat on my brother’s face, while my father was probably just taken aback. As really, it is an amazing play from my brother. Plus this is a discussion that will probably be laughed over for a while.

The real killer to me was when a couple weeks after my whole family has had a laugh over this event, that line my brother brought to our attention is all over the media. This time instead of showing that dads don’t command, it is woman and girls who are left out of the anthem.

Beyond my initial disbelief that these words were being brought to my attention again, I kind of wonder, why isn’t it “in all of us command”?

Regardless, we haven’t mentioned the proposed word change to my brother. I don’t know how he will take it…

[Originally published on the author's original blog: http://selfsightings.tumblr.com/ on October 10, 2013]