I spend more time associating Memorial Day Weekend with planting flowers safely than I have spent thinking about the millions of people who have died in America’s many wars and conflicts. That’s not right.
Our news is filled with endless political arguments and conflicts; not much attention is paid to remembering dead and wounded soldiers and the innocent children killed in our schools..
As our democracy comes under increasing attack from hateful people, I want to change that pattern for me this weekend. I want to think of those who gave their lives for our freedom, not those who exploit and undermine it.
I will bring some of my flowers to plan on the graves of veterans in a nearby cemetery and give thanks to them. A group in town goes to veterans’ gravesites to clean them and offer Poppies and other flowers.
I might join them for a while. Poppies are known to grow on smoldering battlefields. I have some seeds to plant.
I might plant something in their memory here. And I will dedicate one of my garden beds this weekend to soldiers who fought and died for freedom and also for the children murdered in their classrooms before they had a chance to live.
I think the best thing I can do for them is remember them and remember how important it is to be free. That’s what memorials are all about. That’s what America is all about for me. Like Lincoln said, their deaths and sacrifices must not be in vain.
I don’t normally comment to your posts but this is such a thoughtful, well written, and perfect post for this holiday that I needed to let you know. I hope many people get to read it and understand what you are telling us. I wish everyone would feel the way you do about the true meaning of Memorial Day. Thank you for this deep and heart felt post.
Thanks, Karen, I appreciate your message very much. I hope you have a meaningful holiday. jon
I thank you for that. My father died i the war and is buried in Holland. I never knew him. I was fortunate my mother remarried a wonderful man who adopted me. I was very lucky. Still I regret the death of my birth father.
Our parents’ generation memorized this in school:
In Flanders Fields
BY JOHN MCCRAE
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
My father wore a paper red poppy in his buttonhole. It was very meaningful to him.
On Memorial Day, we would visit grave sites,
We would say a brief prayer at the end of the each row. We would pray for the dead service members families and for our government.
I was young and would run and play between the graves. When a stranger stopped me, my father said these men died so my daughter could play, even here.
It is powerful memory.
That paper poppy is in a pincushion I pass everyday. I’m reminded now, that I need to stop at that spot; remember families and pray for our government and our divided nation.
Jon, thank you for reminding us of the importance of Memorial Day.
My late father wore a red paper poppy in his buttonhole.
When I was.young, on Memorial Day, my family would visit LA’s large memorial cemetery. At the end of each row; my father would stop and pray for the surviving family members and also for our country.
Once, I was told to stop playing around the grave sites. My father told that person, “These men died so my little daughter could play.”
Now, I have that paper poppy in a pincushion.
I frequently pass by it. I remember my father’s fervor and his prayers for our country.
Monday, Memorial Day. I’ll stand by that pincushioned poppy and prayerfully sing
“God Bless America.”