Gather Around the Sacred Remains (Please remember, friends, that Memorial Day is NOT about hot dogs and relaxing.)

I’m about to head out the door to go and purchase our flowers and wreaths. When I return, the family will be awake and we will hang out flag. Then, in just a few hours, we will dress in red, white, and blue and head to a local cemetery to join in the remembrance and honoring of the men and women who have died for our country.

Memorial Day. Oh, friends! I hope that your day is not ONLY about sleeping in, cookouts, and sales on bath towels.

Let’s remember again what this day is for:

” …gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime….let us in this solemn presence General John Logan, General Order No. 11, 5 May 1868renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation’s gratitude,–the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.” —

This may seem strange to you. You may have no experience in participating in a Memorial Day service. That’s OK! Fred and I felt TOTALLY strange the first Memorial Day we spent as a married couple in Chicago—looking up a cemetery’s service; just showing up; not really knowing what to do or exactly what would happen. But after that first time, it gets easier (re: the socially awkward introverts that we are); but never easier to remember these brave men and women (and their widows and orphans).

Plus, right now is an oh-so-IMPORTANT-time to do so because we’re losing our WWII vets SO quickly. If you go to a service today or next year, you might get to hear their ACTUAL voices and shake their ACTUAL hands and thank them as THEY demonstrate what it really means to honor the fallen (with a life well-lived). But if you tarry? You may miss out. And if you fail to train your children to be grateful and take them to Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day services? Well, they will miss out for sure because by the time they are old enough to understand on their own just how much The Greatest Generation did for our nation (and the world), the Greatest Generation will be gone.

So grab a local newspaper. Find a service at a local cemetery. Be somber and respectful (and teach your children to do the same). Honor the flag. Listen to the 21-gun salute. Reverently walk the military section of your cemetery (every cemetery has one!) and read the names. Dates. War. What rank did he or she have? How old at death? What was happening in that war?

(Even at age six, Sophie has a general idea about what happened in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, The Gulf, Iraq/Afghanistan. Kids can learn age-appropriate things about history even early on.)

The thing is—don’t be surprised if you’re under the age of 40 and someone stops and asks you if you lost your dad in Viet Nam. (No.) An uncle? (No.) Is your parent still serving in the military? (No. We’re just here because we wanted to remember and honor those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We’re grateful. We wanted to say thanks.)

You see—they may be surprised by that because SO FEW PEOPLE care enough to come and say thanks.

So go to your local cemetery! You’ll be glad you did. And I bet you’ll have lots of interesting conversations with your children throughout the year as you prepare for Veteran’s Day and next year’s Memorial Day too.

Blessings to you!

Yours,
Tara B.