Meaningful or meaningless?
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Working on an editorial cartoon for Memorial Day (which I’ll include at bottom), I came across this short video tribute to those who died in wartime, and was touched by the evocative images and footage.
But there’s more division on this issue than we always care to admit. When the photos of Arlington Cemetery came up, it reminded me of how we see things differently. For those who tend anti-war and anti-military, that iconic imagery of the military graveyard with all those precise crosses in straight rows are the very epitome of the horrible geometry of everything they think is wrong with military service.
My father was a career Army man until he left the service at 45 and then retired at 55. He was told that he had a chance to be buried at Arlington Cemetery, if he so chose, which made my mother thoroughly indignant. She was disgusted anyone would even suggest that his final resting place would add one more little cross to that sea of crosses. And so I was never able to tell her that for my part, I wouldn’t have thought it was a diminishment of Dad’s life for him to be buried in such a place. It’s true that viewed through the car windows as we drove along D.C., the hills of identical markers seemed to almost undulate in waves all the way to the horizon. They would’ve been all different in their lives, but in death, they had a shared identity — and not even a whole identity, just a little part of it.
So why do I wish my father had been buried there? I suppose because I think that the shared identity, in this case, seems like something that gives more measure to his humanity, not less. That pattern of grave markers doesn’t seem like something meaningless to me; it bespeaks a history of military sacrifice that is profoundly important.
I won’t go into more detail than that — it’s so easy for intelligent people to come down on very different sides on the issue of war. But since it is something that our country asked men and women to do, it is certainly worth taking a moment, or a day, to offer up a prayer of thanks to all the ones who answered the call.
God bless our fallen soldiers. Memory eternal.
Related posts:
- Heckuva speech going on
- Christian graves to face Mecca
- Memorial Day
- Why I don’t think the war is a failure
- Advice from one possible future
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The grave markers in the United States at VA cemeteries, as far as I know, are all tombstone shaped with a symbol of faith chiseled in (cross, Star of David, Orthodox cross, etc — those are all I have ever seen although it is amazing how many choices there are — see: http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hm/hmemb.asp)
At US military cemeteries in Europe, however, the grave markers are crosses or an occasional Star of David shape. We lived in Europe for 12 years and made it a point to celebrate Memorial Day at one of the cemeteries there (we tried to vary the location)- and when we had company from the US made it a point to take them there.
A burial at Arlington takes MONTHS to schedule which can be hard on the family wanting closure. On the other hand, it does allow people from far away to make travel plans.
My husband and I can’t decide where we want to be buried. Our kids live across the country — it’s not like when we were growing up and families stayed put and took care of family plots. We guess Arlington is as good a place as any. We have friends there and some family as well.
Ay! You’re so right about the shape of the headstones — shows how many years it’s been since I’ve seen it. You would think that bringing up a photo of it for the banner would’ve jogged my memory, but my memory, like my lovely self, abhors jogging.
I have the same thoughts about where to be buried (though Arlington isn’t an option). Our family is all spread out, and we have no kids. So any old chunk of dirt will do, I guess.