Memorial Day is a time for remembrance of all those that made the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us. It shouldn’t be an annual day of remembrance but an every day occurrence. Since its an annual event, I think its fitting to fall in May.
May is the entrance point of summer. Trees are leafing out in our part of the country. Crab apple trees and lilacs are bursting with blossoms. The first real flowers of summer are showing their faces. The birds and animals are bringing out their newborns. Its a time of rebirth after the cold stark days of winter. Time to reflect on those cold dark days and give thanks.
So it is with Memorial Day. It’s a new day. The perfect time to reflect on the sacrifices so many of our members of the military have made over the years. While its a time of sadness for many, it’s also a time to take a moment out of our day and remember.
Read about our history
The last few months I’ve been reading a number of books chronicling WWII and the Viet Nam war. Not sure why I’ve been drawn to them. I like history and it just seems that once I started reading them I can’t help reading more.
I had read the book and seen the movie about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. It’s a chilling retelling of a little known incident involving the atomic bomb dropped on Japan. Recently I finished Bill O’Reilly’s book “Killing the Rising Sun”. The book was incredibly fascinating with a lot of history I wasn’t aware of. It also details the tremendous loss of military lives before (at Pearl Harbor) during and even after hostilities ceased. My current read is about a chopper pilot in Nam.
The stories of the heroes that sacrificed their lives so that others might live is inspiring to say the least. Some lost their lives committing acts of heroism, others just following orders, some were in the wrong place at the wrong time, some were victims of the most inhumane cruelty imaginable. The common denominator is they all deserve our respect.
Bringing it home
It’s one thing to read a date on a calendar and see that tomorrow is….. If you take the time to do a little reading or talk to a vet that was there, it brings it home. The flags waving at the cemetery, the vets marching in parades have a lot more meaning.
Suddenly the flags develop more meaning. As it was recently quite aptly put, the waving of the flag represents the last breath a dying soldier took. Take a moment out of your day to say a silent thanks.
