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A Smile for Memorial Day
May. 29th, 2006 09:35 pmEarlier today ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schrathe made a post about a TV anchor just not getting what this day is about. She basically said to a bunch of Service Men and Women, "Smile, it's Memorial day."
For those very few of you on my Friends List who may have forgotten that this isn't a day just for BBQs and a day off from work, Memorial Day is a "holiday" in which to remember those who have fallen while in service to our (The USA) country. Not to be confused with Veterans Day, which is for ALL who have served.
So needless to say, the TV Anchor came across as "just not getting it."
But it got me thinking. (Always a dangerous thing.)
( Cut to save your Friend's Page from my rambling on why such holidays exist. )
Do memorials, funerals, and other remembrances need to be filled with somber sorrow and tragic loss?
I think of stories I hear of Irish funerals that are filled with drinking, dancing and storytelling about the deceased, and I think, "No, no they don't."
So yes, this TV anchor was flaky. I didn't see the broadcast but there is a good chance that this anchor, like me, can't remember a time when it wasn't observed on the last Monday of May as opposed to May 30th. Like me, this anchor is probably a "babe of history" and so I say "Out of the mouth of babes..." because her on-air gaff actually contained some accidental wisdom in it - "Smile, It's Memorial Day."
Yes, smile. Smile because you are alive and someone cared enough about your life, liberty, and freedom to make the ultimate sacrifice in ensuring it. Smile because you knew someone who sought the honor of protecting those they love by serving a cause greater than themselves. Smile, because of them we can have our BBQs and our parades and come together and enjoy the company of those still living. Smile because they would not want you to weep more than you have to.
Smile because they will live forever if you tell their story. Tell me a story and make me smile. Tell your child a story and make them smile and they can know the person that is gone. Tell the world a story so all can smile and they will not have died in vain.
So, I choose to remember the fallen not by how they died, but by how they lived. If I am a flake or "not getting it" because of this, then so be it. I prefer to believe that it's the smiles that make all the death and destruction that come in times of war and conflict seem less senseless, not the tears and silence.
schrathe made a post about a TV anchor just not getting what this day is about. She basically said to a bunch of Service Men and Women, "Smile, it's Memorial day."For those very few of you on my Friends List who may have forgotten that this isn't a day just for BBQs and a day off from work, Memorial Day is a "holiday" in which to remember those who have fallen while in service to our (The USA) country. Not to be confused with Veterans Day, which is for ALL who have served.
So needless to say, the TV Anchor came across as "just not getting it."
But it got me thinking. (Always a dangerous thing.)
( Cut to save your Friend's Page from my rambling on why such holidays exist. )
Do memorials, funerals, and other remembrances need to be filled with somber sorrow and tragic loss?
I think of stories I hear of Irish funerals that are filled with drinking, dancing and storytelling about the deceased, and I think, "No, no they don't."
So yes, this TV anchor was flaky. I didn't see the broadcast but there is a good chance that this anchor, like me, can't remember a time when it wasn't observed on the last Monday of May as opposed to May 30th. Like me, this anchor is probably a "babe of history" and so I say "Out of the mouth of babes..." because her on-air gaff actually contained some accidental wisdom in it - "Smile, It's Memorial Day."
Yes, smile. Smile because you are alive and someone cared enough about your life, liberty, and freedom to make the ultimate sacrifice in ensuring it. Smile because you knew someone who sought the honor of protecting those they love by serving a cause greater than themselves. Smile, because of them we can have our BBQs and our parades and come together and enjoy the company of those still living. Smile because they would not want you to weep more than you have to.
Smile because they will live forever if you tell their story. Tell me a story and make me smile. Tell your child a story and make them smile and they can know the person that is gone. Tell the world a story so all can smile and they will not have died in vain.
So, I choose to remember the fallen not by how they died, but by how they lived. If I am a flake or "not getting it" because of this, then so be it. I prefer to believe that it's the smiles that make all the death and destruction that come in times of war and conflict seem less senseless, not the tears and silence.
