Today may or may not be on your wall calendar, more
likely than not depending on where it was printed. Last Friday, as you should
remember, was Patriot Day observed as the National Day of Service and Remembrance.
Dedicating days on the calendar can help us keep track
not so much of time itself (good luck with that John
Cameron Swayze) but a
(not the) prioritization and
importance of events we might otherwise allow to fade in our memory and slip
from our consciousness.
At one time schoolchildren learned the beginning and end
dates of major conflicts and world wars; perhaps because one seems to stretch
into the next, we’ve started to get away from demarcations like that allowing,
instead, the flickering images online or TV screens to light up our faces even
if our eyes seem distant and dull in comprehending what any of what we are
seeing actually means.
Today is National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Recognition Day,
a different day of remembrance because for those most deeply and directly
affected, every day is POW/MIA
Recognition Day and the pain of loss is neither dulled nor diminished with the
passage of years and decades.
William (WS) Merwin once offered “What you remember
saves you.”
For too many of us, perhaps salvation has slipped from
our grasp and yet I would hope we can at least for today find a moment to
remember those for whom the battles to secure our liberties have yet to end.
In defending hearth and home as many have done throughout
our history, the belief and hope that there will be a day when you return to
that same hearth and home often sustains in both moments of trial and triumph.
If only in our thoughts and hearts today, for all those were
and are feared lost, welcome home.
-bill kenny
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