Memorial Day

Let the memorial day festivities begin.

The air is thick with the scent of hamburgers, hot dogs, and barbequed goodness.  A fresh bottle of beer cracks in the distance.  Open your eyes.  Look around quickly.  You are surrounded by family, friends.  You are surrounded by red, white, and blue.  You smile.  You've got the freedom to eat five of those burgers.  You've got the liberty to get up and dance when they blare patriotic music.  You've got every right to be happy - just remember who fought for your happiness.

Memorial Day is about celebrating the soldiers who have bravely fought for our freedom, liberty, and happiness - the soldiers who lost their lives defending our country.

I write this post in honor of all the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives.     I write this post to honor the families who grieve their loss.  I write this post because I do not understand war, death, and mankind - but I do understand gratitude.  And I am grateful for my soldiers.

I encourage my readers to write a comment (in the comments section) and thank a soldier that you know or remember - a lost soldier or a soldier still fighting.  I encourage my readers to take a big bite out of that cheesy burger (or veggie burger), but while chowing down, take a moment to remember the soldiers who lost their lives.  I'm starting to realize that grief and loss are nearly impossible to avoid.  Grief and loss are difficult to overcome.  But the best antidote is remembrance.  If we remember the lives of the ones we've lost, then they are never really gone.  There are lessons to be learned in every loss we suffer.

A young girl dies from a drug overdose, in bad company and a bad state of mind.  She didn't know how loved she was.  She was a poet, a word smith, a frequent user of sarcasm.  She had a painfully crystalline view of the world that she should have exploited that view as an artist and writer, but instead she clouded her mind with drugs.  Her life will never be forgotten by the people who loved her.  And her death was honored when every member of her family signed a petition to ban OxyCotin.

A young boy, with an unfaltering smile on his face and always a guitar in his hand, dies after a suicide attempt.  The school becomes a morgue, a place that houses his memory, feels his loss, and holds all the love that the young boy didn't know he had.  But his loss will not be forgotten.  His music and the joy it brought will remain.  I will remember the way that young boy smiled and someday, when I have kids, I will teach them to smile.  I will teach them that they are loved and I will tell them to never feel alone... even in the darkest moments.  And when I do this, I will tell them about that young boy and he will be remembered.

A soldier dies in a combat mission, in the heat, sand, and foreign soil of the Middle East.  His life will never be forgotten by the people who loved him.  His sacrifice will never be forgotten by the country that needed him.

That soldiers falls and I have one more reason to appreciate my freedom...

...one more reason to pause and think on Memorial Day.