Don't Forget

“The thing about remembering,” wrote Tim O’Brien in “The Things They Carried,” “is 

that you don’t forget.”

Laura Youngblood, widow of U.S. Navy Petty Officer Travis L. Youngblood, touches his gravestone while visiting his grave in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery during the Memorial Day weekend in Arlington, Virginia, May 24, 2009. Youngblood died of wounds received in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in July of 2005 in Iraq. (REUTERS/Larry Downing) 

Truthfully, in my opinion? I don't think many, in the huge number of us, American citizens, compared to the number of our population serving in the military, give much of a damn about this holiday except for the three day weekend and time with family around the bbq and sales at the malls. But Laura Youngblood and her family might feel a bit differently. And for her and her children and Travis's parents and oh yeah, the thousands of individual others, killed in what our government tells us is and are exercises being waged in the name of freedom (which I think ended in World War II); for all of them, each of whom have a name and mothers and fathers and husbands and wives and children? Let's spare a moment or two to think of them. 

And then, how about sparing the rest of the years of our lives to work for peace in the world, on whatever level works for you. Clicking, for a petition for peace, or against corporate gain from wars so far away. Getting into the streets. Writing letters. Just that one stretch, whatever it might be, of reaching farther than your own front door...in whatever way you can. That will be something and that something will be enough and then maybe it might be more. Because something is beyond nothing. It's the least we can do to say thank you and remember what the hell this country and this sad and horrible day is supposed to be about. Or used to be, anyway.

Have a memorial Monday. Do something, even the least thing, that means something.

One Fine Day

On a clear day, you can see almost forever, but I couldn't see St. Croix. A road beckoned and I followed, a road I've rarely been on and I don't think I ever walked on, which is the most right way to be on it at all. Except you have to walk backward going up, with each step changing the view.

I brought along the phone to play with the camera (learning that it sucks at zoom even more than I thought, but I won't throw it out for that - it definitely has some good features. Like, it's part of a PHONE! which I hope will continue to stay ridiculously strange to my mind for a long time).

In real life, you could see the sands of Vieques with extreme clarity.

Zoom still pretty bad, even at this distance

But from here! Not so bad, if you like the road. And I do.

Coming back down the road

On the other hand, for closer captures, it ain't so bad!

Another ponytail palm

Seriously gorgeous

There is a lot of this around here. Walls and walls of it. Retaining walls, not house walls.

It makes my arms tired just looking at these walls of stone, even while being awed by the beauty and the craft. I think this is how one knows one is growing older; instead of thinking immediately, 'I could do that!' one thinks, 'Who could I hire to do that?'

Have a sensation full Sunday. Do something sagacious.

A funny thing happened...

Of course, around here, funny things happen all of the time, depending on how you define 'funny'. I was getting ready to head down the hill when I saw these beauties meandering out of the bush, along with their egret escorts.

I just happened to have my...erm...phone with me and not my camera, so I got to play with it a little bit.

I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me.

I have a lot to learn. First was getting them off the phone, onto the computer.
It was THEN I noticed things like zoom and all the other adjustments. Ah ha!

Just in case you've always wondered why it's called a ponytail palm.
This one is actually in the ground and thriving.

Anything else you are wondering, you'll just have to ask. It's a beautiful day here and time to get back out in it!

Have a searching Saturday. Do something soul satisfying.