My Mom talks about Memorial Day when she was little in Eastern Kentucky. People would gather at the local cemetery, put flags and flowers on the Veteran's graves, and there would be a huge picnic as they honored their loved ones. I remember my Aunts & Uncles talking about making trips down to Kentucky just for Memorial Day weekend. My Mom makes the day and community picnic sound so great. That sense of memorial, honor, community that you hear in her voice when she speaks of it, makes me long to go back in time and experience that!
For me, I hate to say, Memorial Day has long since became just "another day", we don't do anything special really. It happens to be often be the same weekend as my wedding anniversary, so we sometimes celebrate on the holiday weekend. But for the past 2 years, I have covered the Sunday night DJ set on Memorial Day weekend, and I am always asked to make it a tribute night. (The regular DJ for this set likes to watch cars drive around in a circle in Indy at a neck breaking speed, so he takes the day off every year.) So, this gives me a chance to look back and think about Veterans and tributes.
Here's some of the thoughts that runs through my mind as I play songs like "Arlington" by Trace Adkins, "Traveling Soldier" by Dixie Chicks, and "Riding With Private Malone" by David Ball...
I have been incredibly blessed to know some truly awesome men and women, who just happened to be Veterans. These men and women are just like me, they eat, sleep, play games, watch TV, go to the movies, fall in love, get married, break up, and have children. They worry about paying the mortgage or if little Johnny is going to wreck the car. But there's one major difference between me and them, when I "go to work", I might get a paper cut. I might get stuck in "car pool" traffic. On a really bad day, I might have an accident that requires medical attention. When I was teaching full time, I might have to tell a student he or she can't repeat an exam, and they might get mad and do something stupid, like trying to cut my tires. What doesn't happen to me "at work", is strapping on a uniform and going where others want to shoot you! A bad day for them could end with them escorting a "brother" home or worse them in a body bag. My job is NOTHING compared to the men and women who puts their lives on the line for our freedom.
I had the discussion with John, my newly retired from the Air Force friend, and he says (sorry I know that I won't quote you perfectly, and if I mess it up, you'll correct me!) "for us, it's a job. It's what we are expected to do, what is needed and we do it." The attitude I understand, the selflessness, the willingness and commitment to do what's needed, what is expected. I get that. But that's a commitment. There are people who can't keep a commitment to wash dishes or put their clothes away, but yet these men and women made a commitment protect our freedom even when the very people they are protecting might not appreciate them.
Memorial Day is a Holiday, and a lot of us will use the day to have a cookout with friends, maybe we will take our family and go to a park or the Zoo. Maybe we will just gather around a bonfire and have a beer, or my gamer friends might gather around a table for a game. But the people who we are honoring at Memorial Day, are likely to be working. They are the men and women who don't get the day off, because if they took the day off to have a hot dog and beer next to the bonfire, the very freedoms that allow us the day off could be taken in a heartbeat.
The military uses terms like "honor", "respect", and "trust". For them, these words have meaning. They have to trust the 'brothers' who has their back. They honor the flag, the government, the idea that our country was founded. They respect the uniform. (They might not agree with that government all time, but they still honor it.) I personally love those words and the meanings! But you know what, the military don't just use these words. They don't put them in their branch motto, and write them on a flag or make them a line in a song. They actually live those words! Those words describes not the ideal, but the actual life of the men and women living in that uniform. Wow! Wouldn't it be awesome of the rest of us did that?
So please as you're putting the mustard on your hot dog or putting the marshmallow on the stick for a s'more, take a moment to thank a soldier, airmen, seaman, marine, or coast guard. And if you served, I have had it explained to me, that sometimes hearing "Thank you" is hard to hear. But please know, that there's a wife, mother, daughter, that prays nightly for you, that appreciates you. I'm not going to stop saying "Thank you", because the words are way too easy and can't possibly be enough. If I see you in uniform behind me, I will likely pay for your coffee or pick up the tab for your dinner. I don't do it because I think you need a handout. I do it, because without you doing what you do, I can't do what I do, and for that, I'm very grateful. So as I play the last song of my 2-hours of tribute music, I say once again. Thank you!
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