Memorial Day, July 4th, Veteran’s Day: the really AMERICAN holidays. The ones that I don’t entirely agree with but absolutely respect. The ones that can’t be accepted on face value, that need to have context. The ones that require you to look a bit more at what was, what SHOULD and COULD be, and less at what IS.
It’s hard to celebrate what IS if you don’t understand what WAS, and it’s a whole lot better to celebrate and work towards what could be – because what IS has a lot wrong with it.
But that’s pretty damned human, isn’t it? Celebrate where you are, because you’ve come a long way baby! But celebrating who you are should NEVER mean not striving to be better.
Just recently I was listening to a podcast talking about this difficulty with American pride – about how pride shouldn’t undermine your ability to critique – just as being critical shouldn’t undermine your Love of something – and the commentor said something really smart : America’s a young country, and we’re very much going through the identity-crisis of being a teenager.
I felt that.
I do think it’s ironic that these days there is a constant STREAM of messaging to say “you’re okay” and “your struggle is worthy”. Basically a constant barrage of feel-good messaging saying “keep trying (or don’t) because YOU are all YOU need to be”! In these days of that kind of messaging about SELF, there’s absolutely no recognition that the greater self – that of our culture and of our nation – is also in flux and in struggle. It’s not inherently evil. And acknowledging it’s flaws and struggles doesn’t have to undermine a Love of what it can be. Celebrate the dream – and work towards that dream.
These are NOT mutually exclusive.
I just don’t always get all the explosives.
IN ANY CASE, Memorial Day today was a getaway. We didn’t talk too much about any of the above. We wandered Turkey Run with an old tour friend and his newly-extended family. Looking around at the filtered reality – the extremely diverse and heavily Hispanic population around me here in rural Indiana… the cookouts and the flags as we went to and returned from the park. Few mention of troops or the meaning of Memorial Day. Plenty of sales. Phone calls from Musician’s Friend to remind me that accessories are 20% off, to, you know, celebrate our freedom and those who sacrificed their Lives to acquire it.
I was reading up on how Memorial Day become uber-commercialized as the American Highway truly matured in the 1950s, department stores trying to capture sales as Americans discovered the freedom of the road and blew town to celebrate the unofficial kick-off of SUMMER.
At the root though, everyone around us has made time for friends and family – and so I’m so very thankful that Steve and Allison have extended this holiday unto us. We’ve been embraced, gathered in, and schooled. In addition, Steve, craving the Memorial Day cookouts and family gatherings of his youth decided, kind of on the spur of the moment, to go nab what meats were left at the supermarket, some fruits and potato salad, and almost single-handedly threw together a fantastic traditionally-American Memorial Day cookout in which … well, we felt like family.
It was especially beautiful because Allison and HER family had never seen us play. They don’t know us. They’d never met us before that day – and to have us invited into their home and their holiday – well, maybe I can restore a LEEETLE bit of my faith in the rest of my species, one tour at a time.
Heather looks good with ALL the beasts!!!