A lot can happen over Memorial Day weekend.
You can wake up without fear of tyranny. (Which is a conversation all of its own…) You can then go to the garden shop and get your begonias and baskets to hang. You can get an iced late with vanilla. You can make sure they use whole milk. You can watch your daughter tap dance dressed as a cowardly lion. You can watch your son hit 2 RBIs after struggling at the plate. You can trim dead pine branches with a pole saw. You can congratulate your wife for running another half marathon. You can wear an american flag tank top.
I did most of those things.
Did I capture the spirit with my choices?
I have no idea what Memorial Day is about. That’s an exaggeration to make a point. I know what it’s about but it’s hardly real to me. The notion of honoring our fallen veterans seems right and just. It seems like a chance for us to be our best us, to exercise the national memory in gratitude. It just feels odd to me that we celebrate it all with picnics and yard games. (Though a conga line sure beats a dirge.) We have parades, too, which I think are good reminders of where we’ve been. So it’s a bit of a mixed bag for me.
I sure hope this isn’t coming across as irreverent. I feel quite the opposite. That this day of remembrance deserves the truth. Those that have fallen for you and I to be able to be so well insulated that we partially-to-mostly relate to Memorial Day as a day of leisure deserve the truth.
I don’t know if those who gave their life in service of our country thought we are perfect or not. I want to believe they knew the truth and stepped up anyway. That’s much nobler in my mind. Which doesn’t matter. That’s just the way it measures up in my mind. I figure there’s just so many reminders of how flawed we are to not see it. Which makes their sacrifice all the more sacred. You don’t see that expression of love often, if ever. What’s interesting is how it changes shape over time. The call to country has presented itself in different ways and in different parts of the world but the answer is always the same.
Today I’m grateful.
Not to get all heavy but…
If you’ve ever had anything to do with the peace my family enjoys, thank you.
Memorial Day still seems like a strange paradox to me, though. One which I’m not quite comfortable with, yet.
I hope whatever you gave your time to this holiday weekend (family, friends, neighbors, memories, dreams) was worth memorializing.
Happy Memorial Day, America.
You may now wear white pants in public.
