Memorial Day
May. 31st, 2004 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_multiplemanWhen I was little, every year my grandpa would take me aside--usually he had to run me down first, because I was taking full advantage of the day off.
He'd take me aside, and he'd say, remember why you're not in school today. He'd say, battlefield surgery is a risky business, and even the ones who made it back to camp, some of them he couldn't save. Some of them he knew, had joked around with, played cards with, talked about what they'd do when they got home. He'd say: they didn't die for nothing, and then he'd point to the house, and the barn, and the fields--my whole world, when I was five--and he'd say, they died for this.
So every year I enjoy the day off. I enjoy the hell out of it. But I always try to remember the ones who can't. This day is for them, a lot more than it is for me.
And now if you'll excuse me, I have meat to grill, drums to play, a girlfriend to photograph, and that pool looks awfully inviting. :)
He'd take me aside, and he'd say, remember why you're not in school today. He'd say, battlefield surgery is a risky business, and even the ones who made it back to camp, some of them he couldn't save. Some of them he knew, had joked around with, played cards with, talked about what they'd do when they got home. He'd say: they didn't die for nothing, and then he'd point to the house, and the barn, and the fields--my whole world, when I was five--and he'd say, they died for this.
So every year I enjoy the day off. I enjoy the hell out of it. But I always try to remember the ones who can't. This day is for them, a lot more than it is for me.
And now if you'll excuse me, I have meat to grill, drums to play, a girlfriend to photograph, and that pool looks awfully inviting. :)
no subject
Date: 2017-12-06 09:42 pm (UTC)May 31 2004, 13:05:53 UTC
Dang, chickpea. You astound me. Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-06 09:43 pm (UTC)May 31 2004, 13:56:58 UTC
This was well-put, Jamie.
I wish sometimes that people would remember the ones they never knew about, too. But I suppose that's not particularly fair...
x_cypher
May 31 2004, 14:37:38 UTC
I imagine you have a bit of a different perspective on Memorial Day, now that you're a sort of walking memorial to people who fought a war hundreds of years in the future. I know that dream I had has definitely given me a lot to think about in the past few weeks.
x_cable
May 31 2004, 14:58:54 UTC
You know, that's an awfully good point, Doug. Not the one I initially had in mind, but now that I'm asking them about it, they have all kinds of things to say, too.
I was thinking about my friends from before I was a mercenary, all the ones that died "serving their country". But their country didn't know they existed, and... well, I'm brooding a little. This is the first Memorial Day I've spent in the States since, so... food for thought.
x_cypher
May 31 2004, 17:22:35 UTC
Ah. My mistake. You don't really talk much about the time before you were a mercenary, so I misconstrued.
Perhaps
Date: 2017-12-06 09:44 pm (UTC)May 31 2004, 17:02:13 UTC
Perhaps ... to help remember, people should be better informed?
Though, I believe America has a tomb of unknown soldiers? France does, I believe England has something similar.
Re: Perhaps
x_crowdofone
May 31 2004, 17:06:45 UTC
We do. I always kinda wanted to go, but we never got the chance.
Re: Perhaps
x_wytchbrat
June 1 2004, 04:31:36 UTC
England has one - I remember going there with school on Remembrance Day (Nov 11, for the Americans).