A Time To Remember: Memorial Day, 2009
By Carolyn Baker
25 May, 2009
Carolynbaker.net
Many years ago when I was a child, this holiday was not called Memorial Day, but rather, Decoration Day, owing to the standard practice of families visiting cemeteries to place flowers not only on the graves of fallen heroes, but on all the graves of the dearly departed. Since that time, the culture has chosen to emphasize remembering the war dead in our celebration of this holiday, but today, I would like to enlarge our perspective on its meaning and bring it closer to home for each of us.
Indeed Memorial Day has been designated as a time to remember those men and women who paid the supreme sacrifice, ostensibly for "freedom" and pay them tribute. However, as any reader of this article knows, the memory of an adolescent culture is extremely selective. Americans love pleasant memories and the myths they can make around their heroes-Washington crossing the Delaware, Lee surrendering to Grant, MacArthur's "Old Soldiers" speech, the Iwo Jima Monument, pilots with the "right stuff", Stormin' Norman Swartzkopf, and of course, the magical, mythical Colin Powell.
Conversely, they have little interest in the real truth of the American Empire's conquests from the arrival of Columbus to the present moment. The realities of Native American genocide, nearly three centuries of slavery in North America, all of the unanswered questions surrounding the sinking of the Battleship Maine which touched off the Spanish American War, the evidence pointing to foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attacks, the Pentagon Papers, the My Lai massacre (in which Colin Powell was deeply involved), and of course, the empire's diabolical role in 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars-all of those are relegated to that which we have "put behind" us. We will not remember those on Memorial Day because that day is reserved for the preservation of the myths and fantasies we choose to enshrine in abhorrence of the full, unmitigated veracity of our history.
What we have created in the form of Memorial Day is nothing more than a sentimentality fest-that is, a hypocritical pseudo-ritual, a pretense of remembering. Orgies of parades and flag-flying spare us from facing the truth that when our military veterans who are fortunate enough to return to us from combat and do so with devastated minds and bodies, we have colluded with our government in abandoning them. We have done so first, by allowing the madness of imperial wars to continue and then by turning our heads-as does our government, from the treatment they so desperately need to become something approximating whole human beings. We have demanded the supreme sacrifice from countless men and women of color and from the working class, but we have refused to atone for that evil by ending the carnage and doing whatever it takes to mend their obliterated bodies and minds.
But while I do not wish to join the American consensus in ignoring its deeper history, I would like to broaden our perspective in this moment of the irrefutable, irrevocable collapse of empire. In fact, collapse dictates that we must remember many things besides all of that which got us to this juncture in history. In a time of unprecedented economic unraveling, it may serve us well to remember happier moments in our lives when we experienced invaluable treasures at little or no cost.
For example, I recall childhood memories of picking fruit with my grandmother and finding refuge from the world on top of my parents' garage which was covered and held with thick branches of surrounding maple trees. I used to lie there for hours listening to the wind rustle through the leaves, ensconsed in the solitude and safety of the natural world around me. Baseball games and kick-the-can extravaganzas with neighborhood playmates on summer days that we thought would never end remain in my memory as some of the most magical moments of childhood. None of these adventures required spending any money, but all of them I revere today as priceless.
Additionally, there were the stories in my youth told to me by elders-stories of their own lives and of those of their neighbors and friends. And of course, there were countless stories of the Great Depression and the lives I saw my ancestors living as a result of it. There were always huge gardens in the summer, endless quantities of fresh food, the canning and preserving of food at harvest time, and diligent, unremitting thrift and conservation of everything in their lives. How I wish I had paid more attention-how I wish I had not merely passively watched their activities but asked to be taught their skills. They did not invite me to do so not only because I had no interest, but because everyone around me assumed that I'd never need to know. Naturally, there would never be another Great Depression. It was the fifties, and gas was 25 cents a gallon. Because I was a budding boomer, everyone knew that when I grew up, I'd have no need to grow a garden or can fruits and vegetables. I'd always have what I needed, when I needed it, particularly after I got some dream job which a college degree would most certainly guarantee me.
And so on this day of remembering, I recall my heritage and the parts of it I need to remember that can serve me well as collapse unfolds.
As readers of Truth to Power's Daily News Digest know from this morning's emailing, today is the 100th birthday of one of Vermont's most cherished citizens, Marion Leonard, whom I interviewed for the website in 2007. On this weekend, I remember the life of Marion and what she has given everyone who has been touched by her life. She's fond of reminding folks that she's a friend of geologian, Thomas Berry, and even fonder of reminding us that she's five years older than he is. Repeatedly, she refers to his book The Great Work, and emphasizes that the Great Work is her life's purpose and mission and that whatever else we feel called to do in our lives, we must share a similar vision if we and the earth are to survive and thrive.
You may wonder what a "geologian" is. Berry, who has been a priest all of his adult life, defines it as someone who studies and appreciates the expression of the divine in the earth community. He reminds us in all of his writings that we are the earth, and the earth is us.
As I contemplate the deeper meaning of a day of remembrance on this Memorial Day weekend, nothing for me is more important to remember than this reality. That we are the earth, and the earth is us, is the consummate, primal truth that has been forgotten by the human species. We have absolutely no possibility of tempering or minimizing the devastation of civilization's collapse if we do not regain this memory and live it every day for the rest of our lives.
I invite you to take a few moments to deeply engage with Thomas Berry's words on this video clip "Thomas Berry And The Earth Community". Please turn up your speakers and perhaps grab some tissue. This is powerful, poignant, and oh so beautiful. Please join me in savoring it.
It's time to remember, dear reader-time to remember who we are and why, despite all we have been told to the contrary, why we are here. If we remember and live every day as if we do, we have the opportunity to extract from the sea change of collapse, every drop of meaning it holds for us, and what now appears as endless loss could ultimately result in inestimable reward. Just who is it you want to be in the face of civilization's collapse?
