The Wet Morning After

The day has come and gone.  The holiday weekend is over.  Again.  We took Mason for a long walk after we returned home late from a birthday bash last night.  Our walk, and our condominium, is surrounded by a giant cemetery.  The workers began trimming a few weeks ago -- mowing, planing flowers, trimming around gravestones.  I mean, hey, it's gotta be pretty for Memorial Day....right?  A few days before the weekend, the flowers began to show up.  And Saturday through Monday was a steady stream of cars and people -- opening up the backs of their SUVs or trunks of the cars and taking out flowers, flags, bows, ribbons, decorations.  Quite a few of the graves have American flags on them.  Some flowers are straight out of people's yards while others have that tell-all sign of pretty paper wrapped around them. 

We enjoyed a rain-free day yesterday and actually quite a few sun breaks.  I only mention that because it's rare in the spring here.  It was a very nice day for folks to be out -- remembering, thinking, and contemplating.  The sun had set when we walked Mason last evening.  Along the side of the cemetery.  I always glance in.  On every walk.  I look at dates, names, the bits and bobs of wording that people choose to engrave on the stones.  And, no surprise to many, I think and wonder who these people were.  Why some graves have flowers and some do not.  What life was like for each of these people.  I'm just that way.  The cemetery was quite at 9pm last night.  The coming and going had stopped.  The extra gates and entryways all closed up for the weekend except for the main entry.  Things were quiet.   Peaceful.  A bit sad.  I saw a few flags still trying to wave in the night breeze -- the dusk casting across them hiding the red, white and blue colors. 

Wet.  This morning is wet.  Again.  The regularly scheduled cemetery workers are back.  Normal.  I guess it may be 8am-5pm sort of thing.  The flags are hanging down with the dampness of the rain.  The flowers are still pretty against the spring-green shades of the acres of grass.  Things are back to normal.  Average.  There's got to be a wet morning after. 

Feelin' Any Better ??

Feelin' any better today than you were five years ago about the Iraq War? Tomorrow, March 15, 2008, marks the 5th anniversary of its beginning. Have we got our $1.3 trillion dollars out of it? Do you think it's worth the steady increase in the number of people on poverty levels every year since 2001? How about the 60,000+ Iraqi citizens who have died (the US military doesn't actually keep count of those it kills there). Or how about the close to 4,000 US military folks killed in the line of duty? Oh, but here's a precious fact: 78.4% of the United States claims to be a Christian. Something isn't quite adding up for me.

When War Comes Home With a Flag

I ran across this article a while back by Billy Shore, founder of Share Our Strength, an antihunger organization. With tears in my eyes, I tore it out and keep it out where I can see it frequently, easily. How much more of this needless mess can we endure? The infrastructure of this nation relies so heavily on our 18-30 year-olds now. Does this sound right to anybody?