Today is a holiday when sheer frivolity does not wear well. The idea for the commemorative began taking shape in 1996, when children visiting Washington were asked if they knew what Memorial Day meant. They were right by one emotional track. The pools do open, as do the beaches, bait shops, boat rental places, amusement parks, and ice cream stands. The cottages are unlocked, the docks hammered into place, and the old badminton net untangled.
School vacation is about to start, and the daylight allows for softball games way past supper.
Youth is generally impervious to the chill of mortality and will be today no matter how solemn the adults get. A child may learn what Memorial Day means but won't feel it for a long time, and that is as it should be. The rest of us will live a day close to the earth not only because of the visit to the names carved in rock, but because this is the traditional weekend for planting. As the fingers work the soil, setting in bright flowers and vegetable seedlings, the heart will lift at this vision of lush beginnings, even as it cries for what has ended.