Remembrance Day

I always have mixed feelings about Memorial Day. Although it is sad to think of the many who have lost their lives on the fields of battle I do not believe war solves anything. In recent years those in any branch of the service are there because it is where they want to be with full knowledge that their human life could be ended at any time.

How about we have a special day for the millions of children and adults who were innocent bystanders to the chaos and lost their lives just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Perhaps it could be called Remembrance Day.

I never knew my maternal grandfather because he was killed in a war when my mother was ten. The event caused her an enormous amount of psychological pain that lasted her entire life. Today it causes me to think about the children who are dealing with this same kind of trauma.

On this Memorial Day I prefer to use it to remember all of the souls, no longer here, who have interacted with my life. Many of them were not biologically related, but offered a lesson that helped shape my present being. They didn't carry guns or the knowledge needed to blow people up. They simply walked their path as role models; sometimes teaching me what I wanted to be or do and sometimes what I did not want to be or do. These are the souls I remember on this Remembrance Day 2012.    

 William Ott Johnston 1886-1921