Thoughts
Image by Kevin Graham from Pixabay
I can’t tell you how many Memorial Day parades I’ve been to, but it’s a lot. I remember being a little kid, sitting on the curb, watching police cars roll down the middle of the street, lights strobing, as a seemingly-ancient guard of World War I veterans shuffle-marched their way by. I remember being in the parade myself along with my Girl Scout troop, all of us wearing green uniform dresses, carrying miniature American flags-on-sticks, and me struggling to keep my knee socks pulled up as I hiked the route. I remember matching strides with the flag line fronting my junior high school marching band, with the flute line when I made it into the high school marching band, and even with the percussion line the one year I played the cymbals. I remember sitting on the curb as the parent of little kids—kids enthralled by noisy fire engines and rifle-tossing drill teams. And I remember walking parallel to the parade route a couple of different years in a couple of different towns, trying to time my arrival at the designated public park or cemetery, having been asked to attend a ceremony and provide the invocation, or perhaps, narrate “In Flanders Field.”
I have a lot of Memorial Day memories, to be sure. They’re part of my backstory. Truly, though, they are rather ordinary memories, not infused with poignancy. This is because I am beyond fortunate to have never experienced the loss of a close relative or friend serving in the military. Such particular weightiness has never settled upon me.
For the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all. And this great love is demonstrated when a person sacrifices his life for his friends. John 15: 13 (The Passion Translation)
My Memorial Day moments have not been personally gut-wrenching, but instead, they have been somewhat detached. From that distance, I have sometimes had the luxury of thinking about the nature of my patriotism. It occurs to me…
- I am patriotic in that I have a deep gratitude for all that is good and lovely and admirable in our country.
- I am patriotic in that I have profound hope that all people might come to live purposefully and contentedly, blessed by fair access to the abundant resources of our fortunate nation, and that the fabric of our citizenry would always be strong, durable, a little bit stretchy, colorful, brilliant, and gorgeous.
- I am patriotic in that I try to engage positively in the habits, activities and practices that foster such hope.
- I am patriotic in that I honor those who have dreamed and worked and struggled and fought and even died on the way to upholding the highest of ideals.
- I am patriotic in that I am deeply disturbed by the devastation that comes with warring, and in reaction to it, commit to creativity over destruction, understanding over willful ignorance, peace over conflict.
Maybe all of those parades and all of those ceremonies had a deeper affect on me than I was aware of.
Will you take a few moments to be reflective during this Memorial Day weekend? Who will you remember? What will you remember? How do the pieces fit together for you? What does it mean for the shape of the society we live?
God Bless Us,
Pastor Chris
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