Can you imagine having a picnic in a cemetery? It was fairly common in the late 1800s, and I’ve read that it’s making a comeback. For some of you who associate graveyards with ghosts, I suppose a ham sandwich with chips and lemonade on a blanket there would lose its appeal.

But others apparently desire the connection with or honor of their dear departed by including their gravesite in a warm-weather outdoor lunch.

Originally called Decoration Day, what is now named Memorial Day was observed to honor those who died in the Civil War. It made sense to celebrate it in May when the first flowers of spring could be gathered to decorate their graves.

I remember when Congress changed some holidays to Mondays so people could have an excuse for a three-day weekend. They wanted that long weekend and figured people wouldn’t care about, for instance, Washington or Lincoln’s real birthday. I cared. I still do, and it still bothers me, but I do not doubt I’m in the minority.* Anyway, that’s why we celebrate Memorial Day the last Monday in May.

Regardless of whether you’ve supported a war or even agree with the idea of war in general, we hold an obligation to honor those who died in good faith for their country. We can honor those who did something we have not done. Why did they do it? They stood for freedom. They dug deep into a belief: Duty, Honor, Country.

Depending on what you think is going on in our world just now, I don’t know whether you’ve thought about dying for a cause like soldiers must do. They are required to get their affairs in order. Write a will. Assign an executor. Get their “hero picture” taken. But you can do something easier. Just for this Memorial Day, you might attend a ceremony or parade. You might read a list of fatalities or, perhaps more palatable, a story of a soldier. In fact, I try to include a post on this very blog each year about Memorial Day. Whatever it is that you do, I hope you remember the why. Enjoy your picnic.

https://connectingdirectors.com/55122-cemetery-picnics; evangelina-silina-BzLUmuRDMWE-unsplash-scaled.jpg; *Do you think people even wonder whose birthdays are celebrated on Presidents Day? What a convenient way to diminish another element of our national history; philippa-rose-tite-XLlBh-SQZCA-unsplash.jpg; https://www.myfiresidechat.com/?s=memorial+day&submit=Search

You know that feeling when something’s on the tip of your tongue? It’s right there. It is. But you just can’t identify it at the moment. The good thing is that what we’re trying to recall really is there in our memory, and if it’s not tangible at the moment – well – it’s in this pile of mind matter somewhere!

That experience actually has a name. Lethologica, not to be confused with Lothonomia which has to do with not recalling a correct name. Both are derived from Greek mythology: the river Lethe in Hades was thought to cause oblivion or forgetfulness of the past.

The past. We focus a lot on the present; maybe even the future. Who wouldn’t, the times being what they are? Yet if we neglect the past, we are certain to stumble around as if we’ve lost our balance. Because that’s exactly what we do when we forget where we came from, what we stand for, and who (and Whose) we are.

If you are a Deist, you believe God exists, but that He isn’t involved in world affairs. In the “hallowed” halls of academia, some folks teach that America’s Founding Fathers believed that. However, it’s flat out false.

Those brave men used the Holy Bible in writing the Declaration of Independence, including references to our Creator giving us unalienable rights and nature’s law, that God is the Supreme Judge and that He protects us. They relied on the work of John Locke, Two Treatises of Government. If you read it, you will discover the Bible is cited over 1500 times. 

In addition to those courageous souls who pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor”, many after them have relied on God for wisdom, direction, and protection. You’ve heard the phrase “there are no atheists in foxholes”. That’s because deep down most people know that their very breath comes from the breath of God, Himself. By the way, those soldiers in foxholes might not take kindly to the carelessness with which we now live out, or I should add give up, our freedoms.

If we investigate efforts to revise American history, such as the 1619 Project, we find an erroneous claim being pushed; a narrative that the United States was not founded on noble principles, but evil ones; anti-liberty, not pro-liberty. No, I don’t know how they explain “with liberty and justice for all” in our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance. Take heart. The 1776 Commission calls on us to fight against that false narrative and those like it, such as Critical Race Theory. Of all the ridiculous things it teaches, one is to put people in boxes according to skin color, sex, etc – in essence, teaching racism, sexism, and social statism in a repackaged system. Some people fall for it. Please don’t be one.

So while we get up out of our La-Z-Boy and rummage around the library and internet looking for real history, not rewritten history, we would do well to remember, too, the history we’re living out this minute and those who gave their lives so that we are free to do so. Oh, my friends, cherish it. And that thing on the tip of your tongue? It’s called Memorial Day. But then you knew that.

Dictionary.com; https://truthandliberty.net/ Evidence Shows The Biblical Foundations of Our Nation by Richard Harris