Memorial Day Weekend

When did Memorial Day weekend become a time to dust off the grill, buy beer, and invite friends and neighbors over? I always thought it was a strange concept to have so much fun on a weekend designed to commemorate those who have died in military service. It's a subject people don't like talking about.

The only major exposure relating to Memorial Day I've seen this year has been through the media. Even though the news is full of war updates and troubling events, the news sectors are one of the few that still recognize the holiday for what it stands for because of its ties to such events. The D.C. area also does a phenomenal job of recognizing Memorial Day. I spent last year's Memorial Day in D.C.

The bikers drove from all over the country to meet in D.C. They received a lot of cheers from the tourists and crowds.

The Vietnam War Memorial was simple and elegant. At the beginning of the walk, the Memorial lists the names of people who died during the first year. The wall continues to list names of the dead for the following years. The wall was constructed to show the growing magnitude of casualties throughout the war with its widening and lengthy list as the years passed.

Another observation about these weekends is that I always remember it raining at some point. I shrugged it off as coincidence in the Midwest, but sunny Albuquerque even had rain Saturday morning.

I don't know what I expect people to do, and I'm certainly not boycotting cookouts this weekend but I still can't shake off the thought of the strangeness in telling someone to have a super fun Memorial Day weekend.