It's a peaceful, lazy Sunday morning, and my coffee and I are not quite ready to start the day. It would be more perfect if it was sunny, but it looks like today will be similar to yesterday .... mostly cloudy with threatening rain and the sun peeking through every once in a while. Still, the cats are laying on the patio making sure that no birds bother their drinking spot, and it's a nice morning. I'm listening to the Jyu Oh Sei (anime series) soundtrack, and it's the perfect background to a really nice, laid back morning.
I don't really have anything to blog about. I'm just unmotivated to be productive yet with my usual Sunday chores. Mostly that's because I have an extra day this weekend. Tomorrow's Memorial Day.
Like most Americans who have no immediate family members in the armed forces, I probably spend too little time thinking about what Memorial Day stands for. For me, it's an extra shopping day before I go to Austria. A day off from work. A day to play or party. Those are all thoughts that are probably more in people's minds than the actual meaning of the day. Maybe that's true for me, and too many people like me, because the conflicts that US forces are involved in are not quite real. Of course I see all the pictures in the news, on the Internet, in my newspaper, many places. But it's no more or less real for me personally than everything else I see in those places. It's hard to empathize with, or understand things that don't touch you directly. That's why it's important to sometimes stop and try to understand why we have a Memorial Day.
Some time ago Newsweek did a special issue (Wow! Two years ago. April 2, 2007) called "Voices of the Fallen". In the issue they printed the letters, journal entries, emails, etc, from people who died in the War in Iraq. I read it all. I kept it. For a brief period of time, I had a better understanding that each and every person in uniform has a life and a family. Each soldier is important in someone's life and every loss is a personal loss to someone. I also have a better understanding that my own life is blessed.
I donate to a lot of charities. After reading that article, I added the USO to my list. It's the least I can do to help, and it gives me a feeling of connection and a way to remember more than once a year that regular people are fighting and dying. And on Memorial Day, I'll read that issue again and spend a little of the day for the purpose it was intended. I'll remember the people serving in our Armed Forces, past and present.
Hmmm. I guess I did have something to blog about.
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