Memorial Day

At this very moment, Somerville's Memorial Day Parade is passing in front of my house, with all its marching bands, sirens, and even the occasional cannon firing. Actually, the parade path winds the exact route I walk home from church, so following today's service I got to see a great deal of the goings on.

Which set me to wondering: How should one celebrate Memorial Day? Parades are wonderful things--the very fact that we have them is an obvious sign that the community supports and thanks its veterans. Parades also bring the community together briefly, and instill a sense of national pride in the citizenry, especially from the old (who are the primary participants in the parade) to the young (who are often most bedazzled by the spectacle). But there's no specific connection between parades and Memorial Day; after all, we have parades on many major holidays. And the parade can't be primarily about thanking the participants, although many active military personnel participate, because of the two holidays we dedicate to the Armed Forces it's Veteran's Day where we celebrate our current military force, and Memorial Day where we commemorate the fallen.

Indeed, viewed from a certain perspective, the way people generally choose to celebrate Memorial Day--with barbecues, pool openings, and general frivolity--is quite peculiar. If Memorial Day is meant to honor the memory of military personnel who are no longer among us, including those who died in the heat of battle, there's very little that could be more sobering. What could be more tragic than the thought of the many young men, years younger than I am now, who died on foreign shores, far from home, from the places they knew, and the people that they loved?

One could always say, I suppose, that they would want us to be happy, and that they would want us to enjoy the fruits of their sacrifice. That today of all days we should be happy, and remember the fallen well. Still, there is a powerful sadness in Memorial Day that isn't echoed in the cannon fire, and isn't reflected in the faces of the people watching the parade go by.

In the end, the only thing that I can find that ties them is their cause. Both soldiers on the battlefield and people cheering at a parade do what they do from a love of their country, and of what it represents. It seems strange to me that that should be it, but it's possible that nationalism and somber reflection have a difficult time occupying the same space.