Years ago I gave time to a veterans organization focused on helping vets struggling to adapt to civilian life. You see the military holds a social place in my heart. I was born in the Navy. I grew up surrounded by the unique pomp and ceremony of the military. Thus, it might surprise you that I never attended a Memorial Day ceremony until I joined the Navy myself. I, however, fully understand why. For my father, the “Fallen” are no academic construct, no series of historical events, not even somber photos of tombstones. They are faces, names, tendrils of conversation and relationships. And, as I know now, they burn.
Seatte’s Folklife held the favorite piece of my attention for this weekend. Music speaks to me deeply, echoing within my fogotten recesses. Songs, dancing, with a rich and inclusive mix of humanity. The diversity that is Seattle was on full display in it’s glorious beauty. This gives me great hope that humanity will move past brutality, at least on a mass scale.
Song might be the best way for me to express my feelings about Memorial Day. One, “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” captures my sentiment well. Though, clearly, about Australians, really, war is war. It penetrates the myths of war’s glory, staring into the deepest costs of this human proclivity. Maybe, if we remember the deep and horrible costs of war, maybe, just maybe, war can become something studied by historians, puzzling children. And nothing more. These dreams of mine…
