Tomorrow is... let's see... Memorial Day? Right? Right. Got your flag out to go along with your beer, hot dogs and potato salad tomorrow? Or maybe you're planning a shopping day to take advantage of all the sales? Or planning to just enjoy an extra day off to put your feet up and have a drink or two, watch some baseball?
No, of course you're not doing any of those things. It's a day of mourning, right? A somber occasion. A day of remembering those hundreds of thousands of American children killed over the years in wars and military actions. Children too naive or lost - or young - to know what war really is. Ask any soldier or veteran. I have. I used to work at the V.A. hospital here in Brooklyn. Soldiers don't know why they're fighting from a political or geo-political point of view. They're not even fighting because they are more patriotic than non-soldiers. They fight because they bond in a life and death struggle they're thrown into with their young peers and comrades in arms. They fight for love of each other, not for the flag or any ideology.
It's such a comforting myth when you're downing the last of your second six-pack, isn't it, that these kids are heroically sacrificing their lives so your sons can go to Princeton and get jobs at Goldman Sacks?
I'm sorry. I know this is very curmudgeonly of me, but I actually don't like most holidays. Why? Because what we're supposed to be doing on most holidays - honoring peace and love on earth, or redemption, or romantic love, or appreciating the toils of those who labor in dangerous jobs for minimum wage, or even celebrating our own birth - is so remote from what we actually do, and very far removed from what we do most of the year.
Holidays are part of an elaborate system of denial.
Cheat on your wife all year? Never tell her you love her? Buy her candy and flowers on Valentine's Day and all will be forgiven. Right?
Shorting bad sub-prime mortgages your bank gave out or by-passing safety measures on your multi-billion dollar oil rig ruining thousands of lives and costing taxpayers billions of dollars? Hey, how about a $50,000 ice sculpture at your Labor Day picnic?
Kill a few doctors who legally perform medical procedures to end unwanted pregnancies, or slander and oppress others because they look different from you or share love in a different way? No problem. You can still piously celebrate the man who said "Love your enemy" and "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," while you secretly bang your male escort and vote against "Don't Ask Don't Tell."
Sorry, folks, but while you're doing whatever you do tomorrow, try taking a moment to think about what you do for most of the rest of year. If you observe that you've been working on evolving yourself and connecting to your feelings and to the oneness of all beings, then by all means, put your feet up, have a drink and watch the game. Every day is a holiday for you!
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