Memorial Day, observed over the past weekend throughout the nation is a national holiday originally set aside to honor our nation’s fallen veterans which, over recent years, has taken on the added dimensions of family members, friends, loved ones and many others who are no longer with us. Our more recent encounters with tsunamis, mud slides, Katrina and other ongoing natural disasters, coupled with the ever present man made disastrous effects of war among men and nations around the world, have combined to place new meaning on Memorial Day for many,
The commemorative events of today are steadily taking on new meaning in an attempt to heal a new kind of hurting and conquer new kinds of fear. While there are always those who capitalize on such pain and fear, there are millions more who, through the centuries have learned the art of hurting without hating through a perpetual spiritual healing process. When will we ever learn that as war begets war and hate begets hate, so too willing healing beget healing, love beget love and peace beget peace – if given the chance.
Unfortunately, through out thermometer mentality we allow ourselves to simply register (an subsequently mimic) whatever societal fad or climate we may find ourselves surrounded by, fearing to dare to be different enough, long enough, to be a thermostat instead that gauges and determines its environmental climate.
I was struck to recently memorize the following passage of the Baha’i Holy Writers, “Arise, O people, and by the power of God’s might, resolve to gain the victory over your own selves that haply the whole earth may be freed and sanctified from its servitude to the gods of its idle fancies.”
In today’s hyperactive modern society anything that does not blind us to reality deafen us to truth or numb our spiritual susceptibilities is perceived as dull and incapable of gaining or maintaining the interest of your and old alike in today’s “Barnum and Bailey World, just as phony as it can be,” as stated in the lyrics of “It’s only a Paper Moon.” “But it wouldn’t be make believe if you believed in me.”
Today’s world needs something to believe in, someone to believe in.
Today we are each challenged to “Be a beacon and a judge, a model not a critic, a programmer, not the program” if we ever hope to effect any meaningful change. Above all, every soul is not called upon to have “love and more love; a love that melts opposition, sweep away all barriers, abounds in charity, large-heartedness and noble striving, boundless, irresistible sweeping love. Each one must be a sign of love, a center of love, a sum of love a world of love, a universe of love… then they power is irresistible,” according to the Baha’i Holy Writings. These steps will lead inevitably to Unity, the command of God for this age that must precede peace.
Only then will our Memorial Day observances be not only for who died through earlier carnages of war, but also for those who “so lived that when thy summons comes to join the innumerable caravan which moves to that mysterious realm where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death, thou go not like a quarry-slave at night scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.” – William Cullen Bryant’s Thanatopsis
Investigate!
