Memorial Day Weekend

It’s here! Memorial Day Weekend. This is the time of year we get to wear white shoes, white pants and slacks, and other, colorful summery attire! Or at least that was the custom to follow. I remember mom tsk-tsk-ing over seeing someone wearing white before Memorial Day or well after Labor Day. It simply was not done. Polite people, you know!

Well, I’m not sure such customs are observed these days but Memorial Day and Labor Day are the book end dates for Summer time. And the living is easy!

A ‘not so fond look back at winter’ is on the agenda this weekend. Always is. And then hopes and dreams for balmy weather and life giving breezes are given freedom. And freedom itself to sleep in, travel, eat foods otherwise avoided throughout the year, freedom to camp, to follow pathways and narrow lanes into the woods or out onto the prairie. It is a time to explore one’s world in a more physical sense. The rest of the year we are entrenched in exploring a different world of possibility and academic facts. We create work, do jobs, build products and services, deliver same and help others do the same for our organizations. We are busy and productive.

But in summer life takes on a casual nature. This is the reward we get for slogging through winter and endless meetings and toil. We can finally celebrate the weekend and mean it. No longer is Friday ‘Thank God it’s Friday’, but ‘Thank God it’s the long weekend.’ And that’s the whole point of this weekend.

Didn’t use to be. No. Originally Memorial Day weekend is the time we set aside to honor and remember all of those people who gave their very lives in military service so that we could live free and prosper in a kinder world. In some regards summer is the kinder world, and it does allow us freedom of movement and expression. But battles were fought so we could live free and we really ought to remember this fact.

We can enjoy this weekend only because others gave their lives so that we could enjoy the weekend, and countless others!

It should be a time of thanks and reflection. We each sacrifice parts of our lives to build a better tomorrow. So in some small way we each own this weekend in our own sense of memorial. But do expand that point of view to include the millions of our countrymen and allies the world over who have fought side by side to win rights and freedom for the rest of us.

Inclusion is a big word. So is non-discrimination. And welcome to all who would join us within our borders to continue building the American experiment well into the future. That includes our brothers and sisters of many different nationalities and cultures and religions. We are The Nation of immigrants. So proudly we hail! May it be ever thus.

So now, go forth and be grateful, eat hearty, drink responsibly, and celebrate your personal freedom on this weekend guaranteed by past actions of the brave.

May this be ever so!

May 27, 2016