Memorial Day in perspective

We are at Memorial Day again. It used to be called Decoration Day, which was a day when folks would visit the cemetaries to decorate the graves of the war dead. But now we call it Memorial Day, probably with the intent of raising the level of appreciation for those who died in defense of their country.

Many times people confuse the day as a day to honor all veterans, people have served or who are serving, but that is not the case. We have a Veteran's Day for that purpose. We also have an Armed Forces Day. Both of these are for the purpose of paying honor to the living who served or are serving.

With regard to the cemetery, one last thought. Cemetery comes from a Greek word which meant the place where the dead sleep. That was a change long time ago from a term we called Grave Yard, which left out the idea that they only sleep but left the impression of a final resting place. Well, so much for that.

My brother is in New York today as I write and is participating in what is called Fleet Day. He and the family were going out to the museum piece now called the Intrepid. The Intrepid, now a museum, was once a fighting ship, a carrier, of our Navy. It was commissioned in 1943 but served its time a few years ago to become a museum, where the efforts of men at sea could be reflected upon. Reminds me of the USS Independence (pictured), where I served.

Back to Memorial Day. We have had countless thousands (well, they are counted, but I like that phrase) who have died in defense of our country, whatever we might have called that (I am thinking of the Civil War, where there were two countries offering up their sons to die.) We could list the number, and it would be staggering, of those who left home and never returned.

So Memorial Day is a day in which we give some thanks, some memory, for the sacrifice made. While we might sound a glory horn for them, it is not really that. They went at our order for the most part, and while many may have indeed gone knowing they might never return in the carrying out of their duty, many sure hoped to return home, and they did not.

We must appreciate all who have given so much in order that we might have the freedom we enjoy. Without that effort there is no telling what system we might live under today.

But we need to know that it was not all pleasure in which they served, those who came back and those who did not. I am reminded of a poem written by Winfred Owen (no relation) which probalby speaks more to the thought of the soldier, airman, seaman, Marine, on the field of battle. In my thinking Owen brings out the best way of saying Freedom is not Free. His poem ends "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori," which is to say, "It is sweet and seemly to die for one's country" is a lie. The title to the poem is Dulce et decorum est.

As we memorialize on the Memorial Day, we must also understand what the sacrifice was - for those who served in Intrepid and those who fought on the battlefields so far from home.

Thoughts on San Diego, CA

Just winding up a four day visit in San Diego. Came with my wife, who came on business. So, the visit was not to see or learn about San Diego. It was really just to be here. But wouldn't it be terrible to visit a place of significance and not see or learn some about it? I thought so.

Everybody visits places and misses the finer details that are available. We all do that. I have thought in retirement how neat it would be to go to places and visit with the old timers and find out more. Never did that, but I still think it would be neat. For a while on San Diego I was thinking I would come and go and not know much about San Diego. Oh, I experienced some of the beauty and the cool weather (Texas was over 100 degrees while we were gone, and the daytime in San Diego was not more that 67.)

So, I got to looking around to find how to leave knowing something more. I would hate to go home and somebody ask, but didn't you see.....? I found a tour! The tour took two hours, which we had available on the last day and cost us $64 but it was time and money well spent. We took the Old Town Trolley Tours.

The driver was Bill. Bill had been doing it long enough and had been educated in what he did that he could give us a lot of information. That information enables us to leave feeling we know something about San Diego. So now when we get home and the question is asked, we might be able to answer some of the questions right.

The tour first took us to Coronado Island across the Coronado Bay Bridge. Turns out that bridge has not been around very long. Used to people had to use a ferry to get back and forth. Of course the whole of the area, like all other areas, has been developed from nothing. It was interesting to hear that a Spaniard planted a flag on Point Loma for Spain. Well the first did so and named it one thing, but the second, some 10 years later assigned the name that stuck.

Who would want to miss Balboa Park? That will be one question and can provided some answers so. I am waiting for someone to ask, "Where did all the trees come from." I will respond that this woman got approval from the city to plant trees, and she did, greatly. I can tell them I saw a statute of her, to her memory, but I cannot remember the name. I can say she made a beautiful place, for sure.

Who woulda thought there would be a Little Italy in San Diego, California? There is. Of course, San Diego is a melting pot of nations, as is much of the USA these days. And now I know where the first USA flag was planted following the Mexican American war. Probably not the same flag pole, but Bill said it was the same spot, and I believe Bill.

Bill had all kinds of stories. Some might not have been true, but I expect more were. Particularly the stories of the few entrepreneurs who bought land cheap and made a mint were probably true. And the fellow by the name of Horton who had a big hand in developing New Town (as compared to Old Town) was likely true. He has several monuments around. And about how San Diego really populating following the 1906 quake of San Francisco. I imagine that was true, too.

Yes, a tour is a good way to learn more. While it would have been nice to take a little more time in certain places, this was good enough be me at the moment. Now I can go home feeling I have gotten a little more out of what was always available.

How much does $2 trillion really help?

The news of the day is that current health care providers including insurers have agreed to shave $2 trillion off expected increases over the next four years. Wow! "What a deal," the sages seem to be saying. Personally, I have been struggling with that. What does that mean?

They are not, to my knowledge talking about cutting what is now paid for health insurance. That stays, plus the expected increases over the next four years less about 1.5 percent. (I think I have all that right as to the percentage and the time. It is something like that, anyway). I have been waiting for somebody to say what that really means, but, no; no one is saying anything except about the savings plan. What I want to know is what is going to be done about current health care costs?

For example, I spent one day in a local hospital recently and the bill to the insurance was over $8,000.00. What they are talking about now has nothing to do with that. It has something to do with that cost escalating to maybe $12,000 over the next four years rather than $13,000 (just for talking purposes).

In all this one has to question why costs might go up 40 percent in the next four years. Why would that be? Cost of product? Cost of manufacture? Cost of labor? Cost of profit? Whoa. Profit? Yes, profit is usually turned into a planned or expected increase. Isn't it? I think so. And the profits are spread over all areas considered from the origination to delivery phases. Yes.

So, what I am saying is no one is addressing the real problem. All they, the media and the administration, are talking about is a savings of $2 trillion, and they are making that sound like a really good deal. Well, is it?

$2 trillion divided by 300 million people amounts to about $7,000 per citizen over a year's time (if we were just talking about citizens, which we are not). Put that way, it does not sound like a lot, actually. But if that is so, how about what is left? Come on, now! Lets get real about the cost of health care and stop just talking about someone's expectations of where it is going.

Inspired by others

The Bible says there is nothing new under the sun. I take that as a general thought, for surely folks back in Bible times never had GPS, a recent deal for our finding out directions. To be correct, though, they musta had something similar - like reading different signs to get directions. In that respect, there is nothing new under the sun.

As a minister, I receive a lot of e-mail drops of inspiration, thought of and written by someone else. Sometimes I wonder, don't they know I know that? Doesn't everybody? After all, there is nothing new under the sun. Well, oftentimes I do find, or am brought to remembrance of, something really good. And while I might have known of it, of its importance, occasionally the drop prompts some really good thought for me. Others do inspire my thoughts. While it might not be new and different, it gives me focus to where I might not have been in a while.

Today the note of inspiration was a person who first thought it unimportant to visit a long ago friend who had lost a loved one. The point of the piece, the writer finally decided to go, and that seemed to be key to what the bereaved needed at the moment, even from a long ago friend.

But one does not have to be a minister to be inspired by others, and most times it is not a minister at all. Sometimes it is not even a friend. People, a lot of people, do and say good things that serve to keep us on the road that we ought to be on, even if it might not be a new whatever.

We need never to think that we have it all, that we have no need of others and what they think or do. Obviously, some of that needs to be avoided but there are lots worth paying attention to. And, we don't have to look to professionals, such as church ministers, to find stuff really of great worth. Proportionally, if you think about it, there are a lot more of them than us.

The subject here has to do with inspiration, and that toward doing the good and not the bad. While the word might could be used for both good and bad, I think of it in terms of the good. I think of it that way - inspired to do good by others.

We need to understand that little things really matter, too. What we are inspired to do does not have to be something grandiose. Fact is, a lot of it is rather simple - a smile, a kind word, a short email of concern, thanks, or praise; a card, whatever. Sometimes we so forget the little things; we forget how important little things are to others, folks who might just need that at the moment, which was to me the importance of that email drop today.

Nothing to fear but fear itself

President Roosevelt made that title comment way back in 1933 in his first inaugural - nothing to fear but fear itself (paraphrased). Roosevelt was coming to office in some pretty dire times - the Great Depression, as we now refer to it. Rubel Shelly reminded me of that in a Heartlight piece today, a devotional thought distribution I get daily. Neither of us was there, but we read it. Shelly went on to say,,

You and I have been living a "culture of fear" -- in politics,business, finance, education, water-cooler conversation, you name it.We have forgotten the obvious and emphasized the negative. So fear has been allowed to keep us awake, cloud our decisions, and poison our relationships.

How true it is! I have often thought of the disservice 24/7 news brings to all of us. The latest is a constant feeding on the event of swine (hog) flu, which has almost supplanted the economic doldrums and so many other causes with which the news media hang these day.

I have found that I fare much better by just not tuning in. If I want to feel good, and feel like I have some control over my destiny, I need to cut out the bad stuff and instead think about the good. The way they treat the bad news today I liken to the way it used to be with soap operas (so called). One could miss a week or two and tune back in and find the same act still going on. That is about the way the news media is today.

So is the glass half full or half empty? We would all be much better off in thinking of it as half full. Thinking that way we might also think that it will be full one day. The converse is to look for emptiness.

By the way, I know that thinking it does not necessarily make it so but it is a much better position, if we think the good and not the bad. I remember as a kid a story about a train trying to get over the mountain - I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. Then as the top of the grade is reached - I know I can, (faster) I know I can, I know I can. Little things we learned long time ago are still correct.

The other memory is of Martin Luther King singing "We shall overcome."

We need to think more of the good and less of the bad. Avoid the "water cooler" talk. Then, do something about it!

Just a thank you

We like people to do good stuff. We like people to do good stuff for us. Most people appreciate philanthropy, but that is more than money or tangible things. It might be just a good deed, like helping an elderly woman across the street.

I expect most people have been a recipient of someone doing good for them. I know I have, and probably more times than I can count. It is just a good thing to be touched in that way by another human being, who sees our need or even responds positively to our call for help.

People are classified as philanthropists when then make a habit of giving whatever. We like philanthropists, don't we? Lots of people get past mere existence because someone cared. Of course the big time givers make news, too. We read it in the newspapers and see it on our televisions. That is good too. But that is not all of it. Little things count too.

Here is the thing: thank yous are really important too. Oftentimes we fail to render that thank you to people who have done us a good deed, whatever that might be. We might even think we were owed it. It was their job to do it, so why do I need to say thank you? Well, this is to cause us to rid out minds of that thinking.

Saying thank you is just a part of doing good. It may be that we can never provide help that others need. It may be that we are only, and always, recipients. But we can say thank you, and that counts as philanthropy too in my book.

Of course when we find the opportunity to do for someone else, more than just saying thank you, we need to be ready to do that. Meantime, we ought to say, "Thank you. I appreciate what you did for me (or anyone else you might have seen it done for)."

We do need to practice the philanthropy of saying "Thank you." It will make us feel better, and it might be just the push that the provider needed to keep doing the good.

I think this is more that just a chuckothoughts. It ought to be an everybodythoughts, come to think about it.