Monday, May 26, 2008

Memorial Day 2008





Each year of life, I find Memorial Day more solemn, more important. As we age, we gain more respect for the fleeting nature of life and the profound sacrifice that has been made on our behalf by young men and women through the history of our country. There is nothing in my life that I have that they did not secure for me.

This year is the first Memorial Day since the passing of two of our friends - SGT Eddie Jeffers and SGT James Craig. Today, my heart aches as it did on the days we learned of their deaths. I think of their families and the rest of their friends. I think of how much they enriched our lives, as well as the lives of people they never knew. I hope you will visit their stories and be thankful that such men lived.

On Memorial Day, I think back to the Memorial Days of my youth. I spent them with my family and we would go to the National Cemetery of the Pacific - Punchbowl. We would walk by the graves, we would go into the ten gardens of the missing. Most important, we would read their names. We would enter the chapel and offer prayers for the fallen. "Lift up their names," Puna used to say, "lift them to God, lift them into your memory."

I have always been disturbed by the phrase "Happy Memorial Day" - I guess because it is such a solemn day of importance. It was never a 'holiday' in my family. It was a day of remembrance.

So, today I remember. I hope that you will too.

4 comments:

Buck said...

I have always been disturbed by the phrase "Happy Memorial Day" - I guess because it is such a solemn day of importance.

Me, too, Cynthia. The other thing that gets me, personally, is confusing Veterans Day with Memorial Day. Memorial Day is... as you've stated... a day for Remembrance... whereby we honor the sacrifices of the fallen. The living have their day in November. Please don't confuse the two.

Yeah, it's a nit. But since you mentioned it... ;-)

Charles M. Grist: said...

Great post. Also, congratulations on your blog being shown in the recent (Spring, 2008) 100th Anniversary Commemorative Edition of "Warrior Citizen", the Army Reserve magazine. As a matter of fact, we are BOTH shown on page 22!
Keep up the good work.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Ottavio (Otto) Marasco said...

Thank you for the clarification. An important post! Let's hope that as generations come and go, the importance of the day is not lost...

Mike's America said...

"Each year of life, I find Memorial Day more solemn, more important. "

I guess to kids, the idea of a life and death struggle for freedom is distant compared to the immediacy of the pool opening.