identitySPECIALIST

I was with friends yesterday, and they were trying to think of how you would greet someone on Memorial Day.  “Merry Memorial Day.”  “Happy Memorial Day.”

I mentioned that Memorial Day is not really too happy or too merry.  It’s meant to be a day to remember those that have gone before – really – for those that have fought for us and our country and have given their life for it.  It’s one day where it’s okay to be somber.  It’s one day where it’s okay to be sad.  It’s one day that we can celebrate, but not in the party and fun kind of way.  We celebrate life – the life of one that has given his life.  There’s something that sounds so biblical about that.

We need to learn to be somber and sad – a proactive somberness or a proactive sadness.  Typically, it is a reactive somberness and sadness – one that takes over and we have no control over.  A proactive one helps us to develop a sense of somberness and sadness that’s completely felt and real, but in control.  I reality, they would feel the same.  I think the difference is in the control.  We need to let ourselves feel those deep and dark emotions, but let’s be in control of them.

So although Memorial might be wasted on partying and getting drunk – it also has allowed me to think and process what it would be like to be proactive about what Memorial Day is truly about.