It’s Memorial Day or at least was Memorial Day depending on when you are reading this. It is 10 of seven and I was just thinking that I feel really good. I’m sitting next to the screen door and there is a cool breeze. My 5 month old is sleeping, my wife is sleeping, and my 2 year old son is eating the breakfast I made him (nothing fancy). The coffee is brewing (although organic decaff may not count as coffee). I’m sitting here thinking about Memorial Day.
We all probably know someone who has or is serving our country. Today, we honor soldiers and especially those who made the biggest sacrifice: life. It seems, however, that Memorial Day has become more of a camping, hiking, long weekend of fun, etc celebration. I guess we can do all that because we have a day off and because someone preserved our freedom to do so. We just have to remember that as we enjoy this day, its because someone, a person, and his or her famiy sacrificed for us. Doesn’t matter how you feel about government or Iraq or whatever. Throw that out, this is about the individuals, the moms, dads, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and children who did something so one of us didn’t have to.
I was drawn to thinking about “Saving Private Ryan”. You remember that movie right? War movie, WWII, invading Normandy (with frightening realness), Tom Hanks, Matt Damon (post Good Will Hunting, pre Bourne movies). I was thinking about the words Tom Hanks’ character (as he is dying; spoiler alert, I guess, but seriously it’s been out for 12 years, if you haven’t already seen it, you probably weren’t going to, right?) said to Matt Damon’s character as he was just saved: “Earn this”.
That’s what I was thinking about this Memorial Day….”earn this”. We are who we are and where we are because the work and sacrifice of others, that’s why we can never get too high on ourselves, because we only have what we have because the hardwork of our family tree, sometimes complete strangers, and service people like our soldiers.
We can have a day like Memorial Day, but to really honor our soldiers we should try to live a life that honors them: live each moment to its fullest, love and sacrifice for others, make the world a better place, read a book, paint a picture, dance, play with a child, run, be healthy, unplug. We honor them by putting aside the things that dull us and numb us from our full potential: drugs, “food” (food is food, “food” is anything that has more than a few ingredients and you can’t find all the ingredients in a normal form in nature), TV/media addiction, laziness, etc. We honor them by exercising our freedoms: voting, speaking out, practicing your faith, healthcare choice (subluxation care and the body healing itself vs drugging our families). You see we have a life to live and we get caught in the day to day. The routine….up, work, tv, sleep….repeat 50 years and die….this is not the way to honor our parents and grandparents, our communities, and our soldiers.
We have to break out of this rut. It all starts with a conscious choices. It’s never a big change, it’s making the small choice correctly over and over till your reality changes (i.e.: apple vs chips, tv vs workout, OTC pill vs adjustment). It’s believing in the change, when we truly believe it and take ownership of it we can do it. It can be a daily battle, cause the rut became a rut because its our norm, but hang in there and know we are here for you. You are never alone. Now, I have to go. My two year old is standing here with a soft Red Sox ball and bat and wants me to play. Time to “earn this”.