the 'sales!!!' piss me off... not that i'd accost or confront someone in business to explain my views, but..... Memorial Day is a day of observance and recognition. it isn't some excuse for some slime ball to sell things supposedly cheap and make a buck.
last year it hit me harder than ever before... stupid story:
I was burning the burgers and hotdogs on the grill for the kids and their lunch, throwing back some nice cold domestics, and with family and friends. It was a fine day. I had a cigar in my hand and a quiet moment to myself looking across the yard at everyone- children playing in the pool splashing each other, ladies laughing and talking about whatever they talk about, and the guys pestering them while they had their own discussions and while tossing horseshoes.
i didn't even link 'memorial day' to it... a random though shot through my head thinking "I wonder what Todd or Jeff would be doing right now?", and a ping of remorse- chased away because I know what they were doing right that second... they were and are looking happily down on us and prideful that we're living on- raising families they never had the opportunity to raise, enjoying company of friends and that family while we make use of the things our work has provided us... they gave up a lot so others can do this. I don't mean that in some figurative way- I mean that just as i type it- there are people alive because those guys sacrificed, literally... they died hero's, not in the general sense, but because they rushed in knowing it would save others- and they were right. That isn't to diminish the sacrifice of those who were doing their job as they were trained and for a good greater than themselves without question. Those men are hero's too, and many of them passed while doing what they had little understanding of except it was asked of them by their country- that is selflessness. it takes a certain kind, and to those men i hope you're smiling down too.
anyway, y'all have fun this year, enjoy your family and friends... remember at some point, hopefully a pause in the scuffle, that the day is a day to tip your hat at men like those two and so many more.