Getting Back To Reality
There seemed to be some wonderfully memorable Memorial Day Services across the nation yesterday, and well there should have been. It is the day we set aside to remember the over 1.3 million who left home to fight for our freedom and never returned. I am forever conscious of the life I got to live that they didn’t, and I have striven to get that message to as many as possible, especially the young.
A few months back I was invited to talk to a school about Hertiage and family migration to the United States. I did my best to explain that at some point, maybe three hundred years ago, or maybe just last week, someone in their family made the decision to leave their homeland and move to America. Why? Because they wanted themselves, their children, grandchildren and every future generation to have the best opportunity to do and be what they wanted in life. You, I said, owe all you have to them. You are standing on their shoulders. I used a chain that I linked together to show one family’s connection and challenged them to do their best, contribute to society and make their ancestors proud.
On Friday, I was invited back to that school to speak on Memorial Day. It immediately hit me that I should bring that same chain and pick up from there. The message was a tie back to their ancestors who came for freedom. On Memorial Day we honor those who went, fought and died to assure that freedom and the promise of America their families came here for was maintained.
It’s all connected, and as we leave the parades and poppies behind let us continue to remember. I am going to share below one poem that many of you may have never read. I know you are aware that poppies come from the poem Flanders Fields as soldiers returned to that battle ground and saw a sea of red as they closed in. Lt. Col John McCrae wrote it to honor the dead and imploring us to never forget. Below is a poem by an American Poet, Moina Michael, who was so moved by McCrae’s words she wrote a response that became so famous that she and poppies were featured on a postage stamp.
Take a read, we’ll be back to news tomorrow and keep the faith. Let’s teach the young.
