04 June, 2009

Memorial Day

I know it was over a week ago, but I just now got my Memorial Day pictures uploaded to my computer. On Memorial Day some families have cookouts and some families head to the lake for the long weekend, but my family does something different. Every Memorial Day we head to the grocery and pick up some flowers, and then we drive over to the Zachary Taylor Cemetery off of Brownsboro Rd. and pay our respects to those who have served our country and died because of it. Not all those who are buried at Zachary Taylor died during the time that they were fighting, but nevertheless, they served our country and have passed away since that time. It seems that we go more than once a year, and it is hard to just go, look at the graves, place our flowers down by a few and then leave. But this year I really wanted to feel more than just the same things that I feel every year. I was looking out across all of the graves, lined so neatly and orderly, and I made myself picture one thing. I made myself, in my mind, replace each grave stone with a young man (or woman) standing up in attention. When I did this, I was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed at how many people had really died so that I could be free and live the comfortable way that I do now. I was overwhelmed at many of the dates I saw on the tombstones. Many of these young men were barely a year or two older than I am. Making this substitution from a gravestone to an actual person made me really see and value Memorial Day in a way that I could have never imagined. Here are a few pictures from that day, and I hope that in the future, instead of just grilling out and hanging out with friends, you will really remember what Memorial Day is all about.






A freshly dug grave.. :(


Age 20


Age 21

- b -

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