Thus the honor guards and flag ceremonies and gun salutes. Rituals of a country which has put many, many young men and women into the field of combat over the past 200 years. But for most Americans, it's bigger than that. Memorial Day is the secular version of our All Saints' Day. Families go to cemeteries and spruce up the grave of loved ones.
Relatives wander among the graves, remembering and talking and telling stories.
Rituals of remembrance of family and friends, black sheep and heros, ancestors and family trees. It's good to have a day of remembrance like Memorial Day. All too often our world is about helter-skelter, rushing here and there, with little or no time to ponder, think, remember, meditate, and appreciate. We are too busy to tell the stories of our family. We don't have time to write down the stories of our families for the next generation.