“My whole family calls my grandmother Oma.”
Being a grandparent is a funny thing. I should know, since I was one. Wait! Not like that! My daughter’s only eight. But years ago her darn stuffed animals didn’t know what to call me. If she was Mama, then what was I? Gramdma, obviously. NOT! Believe me I nipped that in the bud quick. Still, the fact that my reaction was so severe tells me what it might be like years from now when she finally does have a child. It is one of those milestones which is both exciting and a scary all at once. I look forward to the freedom of it. The ability to watch from afar and laugh at the many trials I am sure her own progeny will put her through. I pray that she has a fun and loving husband to help her with those. And I also pray I will be able to stand far enough away that she makes her own mistakes, but close enough that she always knows I have her back. AT the same time, since we got started late on our family, the day this happens may be so far in the future that I will be too blind to see it. We joke that at her wedding my husband will need a cane to walk her down the aisle. Since I hope she gets to enjoy those early days with her husband, free of children, how much older will we be when we turn up our hearing aides to hear the patter of tiny feet. Still, there is hope that I will at least be able to remember my grandchildren’s names. Last week I saw a news post by the NY Times about the role that brain degeneration has plays on memory loss as we get older. (link). It is nice to know that, someday, if I connect electrodes to my head every night at bedtime, I’ll be able to wake up remembering that the little voice who calls me grandma on the phone is not actually one of her stuffed animals pretend talking.
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“Is this our last vacation day?”
It is a sign of our times that my daughter believes her day off is due to another teacher work day. Somewhere along the way we lost the reason for this day and the meaning behind service in general. In a culture that worships money and power (my daughter just told me she wants to spell her name like the singer Ke$ha), few of us recognize the value of doing something for the sake of altruism. Yet, we are reminded today that there are some among us who still do exactly this. Our military personnel do not put themselves in harms’way for the pay, certainly. And anymore even glory is missing from the equation. The truth is, we as a country need these men and women who recognize that service to country and fellow man is critical for protecting the freedoms we frequently take for granted. I have written before about the pain of war…. A pain I feel that is no longer shared by the masses, but is accepted by those who least deserve it. They are the ones who know that freedom and liberty take work and sacrifice. They and their families pay for our ability to go to work unafraid, no matter what our job; to protest the 1% or the cost of obesity; to write our blogs and our tweets and our Facebook posts without fear of retaliation by our government or by those who hold opposing beliefs. My daughter does not know what a victory garden is nor why it was ever necessary. She does not know how many servicemen and women are still fighting for us around the world (there were over 1.4 million active service members as of March 31, 2012 – in case you wondered: from the Statistical Information Analysis Division of the Department of Defense.) Most importantly, until now she did not know that it has been a tradition on this day to remember and honor our dead service members at cemeteries around the U.S.. No, I tell her…this is not a vacation day; remembering takes work. Eulogy for a Veteran by Unknown Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the Gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the mornings hush, I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight, I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die. Author Unknown |
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June 2020
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