We’ve been seeing the commercials for weeks, really since just after Easter because that’s how relentless advertising has to be for us in the era of Consumerism Uber Alles. It’s hard to believe technically this time next week it still will not be ‘real’ Memorial Day.
No worries, three-day weekend fans, we’ve got your six. Yep, this Monday will be the official observance of Memorial Day where we shall break out the briquettes and bar-be-cues, go to car lots for all the latest deals on previously owned but gently-used automobiles we don’t need and let's not forget about mattresses.
That last one always weirds me out as I’m not sure I understand the relationship that’s supposed to exist between bedding and remembering the last, full measure of sacrifice of uniformed men and women in defense of our nation. It’s sort of like the bed linen sales that are held to mark Presidents Day. For many, you can’t have the latter without the former.
I found something to while away the hours between now and whichever Memorial Day you are observing (I hate using the word ‘celebrate,’ it’s inappropriate under the circumstances in my opinion). And I hope you’ll enjoy and explore it as well.
It causes me to pause in the headlong rush of oblivious self-aggrandizement we have called the 21st Century and invites me to feel both the loss and the sense of service to more than self that has, and I hope always shall, mark the lives of so many in the US Armed Forces.
And, perhaps most importantly, at least to me, it reminds me of the cost, price, and value of the freedoms so many of us take for granted far too often. And how great an obligation we, the living, have to those who’ve made our lives and lifestyle possible, to strive to be the best people we can be so that we are worthy of their sacrifices for us.
-bill kenny
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