Good morning. I am out on the back porch this nearly chilly Sunday before Memorial Day 2015. In about an hour Carrie and I will be heading to Hancock Chapel for Sunday Service. A few minutes ago I was thinking about some memories I have been knocking around and I want to share a few of them with you this Memorial Day Weekend.
Carrie, my dear wife, and I recently watched the British Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the end on World War II. There was a ceremony like none I have ever seen. Winston Churchill’s great-grandson gave a speech. There was a sense of reverence that transferred across the Atlantic and through my television that was palpable. I suppose this is what we don’t know and they do. Their homes, their churches, their schools, their lives were dismembered by the savageries of war like we can’t comprehend. My grandparents and my aunts and uncles from that time tell about the war. Well, they told about the war. They are gone now too. But the thing is I have a great many relatives living in many parts of the United States. There is not a half-acre that I can point to and say at this spot my family lost their home to German bombing. Memorial to the British.
My Granny was faithful like no other to put flowers on the grave sites of her loved ones during Memorial Day weekend. Granny is not here to do that anymore. Though I wish I could get in a car and drive to Shreveport, Louisiana this afternoon and be back before dark, I can’t do that. So here I sit typing these flowers for her and remembering her like no one else I have ever known.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery is a place I have visited and I will likely never forget. There is a reason why military members in this country are not celebrated the way they need to be…the way they should be. That reason is simple. Simple, however, does not always equate to easy. Military folks are not celebrated the way they need to be because they do a job not many of us would want to do. It is as simple as that. They do a job that most of us will never be equipped to do and that is a tough thing to admit. Easy as it is to “depend” on the military when we need them, it is just as difficult to say I am not good enough to do what they do. And that is a shame. These folks are our NATIONAL HEROES and we do not acknowledge them as such like we should.
The Indianapolis 500 is today. Today’s edition will be the 99th running of this classic car race. They still call it the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. I believe it still is. When I was a kid we listened to the race on the radio. Imagine that. This was the mid-1970s I am talking about. I don’t know if it was because we lived less than 70 miles from the Speedway or this is the way everyone got to see the race, but we listened to it on the radio as it was happening live…then we watched a tape delay of the ABC television broadcast later that night. All I can say is I hope Marco Andretti wins the race today. It has been 1969 since Mario, Marco’s grandfather, won for the Andretti family name.
If you are firing up the grill this weekend, I wish you the best. Don’t burn the hot dogs. Try a grilled onion or a grilled tomato. Tell someone you love them. Pick up the phone and call an old friend you just want to say hello…perhaps someone you need to say hello to them again. Don’t be afraid to give pause and remember someone you can’t call anymore. Don’t forget to laugh. Don’t forget to stop and look around for a few minutes to take in what is around you. Feel free to ask how you can make things better. Listen for the answer. Then go do it.
May God Bless You this Memorial Day Weekend.
And while you are at it, don’t forget to…speak the rights.
Danny Johnson