Have your BBQ’s. Open your pools. Laugh, love, have fun, but most of all, remember. Remember, good and clear, exactly WHY we can do all these things.
I can’t say “Happy” Memorial Day. Please don’t take what I say next as against you if you do. For me, I can’t. It feels wrong to me. There is really nothing happy about today. Today is all about the reason we CAN do these things every single day of our lives. We have “freedom of speech”, we wear what we want, we worship as we wish, and live as we wish because of the men and women who gave all for us – for our country. This day isn’t about fun and games. It’s about blood. Blood that was shed for us – millions of men and women.
Remember the widows and widowers, moms and dads, children, siblings, and best friends. All the people who are missing someone today. Some one whose life was cut short for US.
Remember those who have lived and are living but saw things you can never imagine. Some of them are still alive but part of them is dead. Dead to a war they fought, dead to things that never touch our soil. It’s easy to get removed when you don’t see it happening in front of your eyes. The news brings you stories but those stories aren’t even a tiny glimpse into the reality. Some days I wonder how some of these men and women’s lives would be different if they didn’t live what they lived, didn’t see what they saw, or had to deal with what haunts them to this day – FOR US.
I wonder if some of the drunks who destroy their families would have been happy and loving. I wonder if the ones who are medicated just to stay sane would be confident and able to handle life a bit better, and I know, that no matter how far down they get, they deserve us to care for them and take care of them because they still gave all. So many gave all and still live in a terrible hell – nightmares, illnesses, loss of precious moments with family.
Today I encourage you to take a few minutes of your time and go to a local Memorial Day ceremony. Usually at the end of a parade, go and remember.
Today this one is for my grandfather, my aunts, my uncle, my father, my cousins. Most of them still living, but they gave all. This one is for my brother. He chose to give and he is giving all.