It’s Memorial Day and I’d like everyone to pause at the picnic trough and thank the men and women who serve our country, as well as the families they leave behind.
Because of their sacrifices, we have the freedom to choose, among other things, to live in a house, an apartment, a double wide or a commune. We can choose to worship in a church, a temple, a mosque, our bedroom or at Denny’s while gorging on a Grand Slam. We can choose to educate our children in public school, private school or even at home, provided you can be in the same room with your kids for longer than ten minutes without giving them up for adoption. We can choose to get our news from conservative or liberal media outlets. We can wear whatever we want, no matter how low it hangs or how tight it fits or how all sorts of wrong it is. We can watch an androgynous singer paint on the guyliner and screech his lungs out all the way to second place.
And we can choose who we want to lead this country.
The next time the republicans and democrats get into a pissing match and I’m forced to yell a slew of profanities at my TV, I’m going to try to remember how fortunate I am to be able to do such a thing. Not because I’m capable of stringing expletives together that would make your ears bleed, although I have mastered that particular skill to an art form.
No, it’s because I can voice my opinion, as colorful and obscene as it may be, without fear of being hauled off and throw in jail for treason and the only thing I have to fear is my youngest rolling her eyes at the fifth graders in the back of the bus while shouting OH YEAH? MY MOM KNOWS MORE POTTY WORDS THAN YOUR MOM. SO THERE.
I may suffer panic attacks when my 401K statement comes in the mail, I may disagree with those who think it’s the government’s business to know whom we sleep with and whom we marry, I may loathe and despise those who reap unprecedented financial gain in the name of capitalism at the cost of thousands of jobs and livelihoods and I may bitterly complain about the cost of keeping my family healthy.
But it’s not lost on me how fortunate I am to live here and that it is only by virtue of the service of those men and women, some who will pay a price I cannot even fathom, that I live in a country that allows me to do all of the above and more.
So, I say THANK YOU!
And in return for making my life more enjoyable, I will share the only piece of advice I can think of at the moment which I hope will make your life much more enjoyable as well: what goes in must come out. Remember this when you decide to eat two pounds of potato salad in one sitting. Trust me on this one.
.
.
21 thoughts on “Take a breather from the potato salad and give thanks”
My husband and I both laughed at this post this morning. The seriousness woven with humor is so true. And since he’s in logistics for the Army, he agrees with your very wise advice.
I agree we need to thank God for those men and women that serve and have served and died for us to have the right to say whatever we please!
Ditto Andy, Ditto!!
Thank you! You said it so well!
God bless the men and women who served valiantly for my right to scream and yell at my tv as well. My dh loves his tivo just for that reason. lol!!! and potato salad – just apply to each hip and conitnue. lmaoo…..
Re Your comment on my blog – I hope his only input with the sextuplets was the delivery! If it was me who had just had 6 babies I certainly would not be here blogging…you would not see me for the dust!!!
Potato salad – this is one topic on which my dh and I will NEVER agree – I cannot stand the stuff.
Well said!
We don’t have Memorial day here in Canada, we have Remembrance Day in November. But I’m still thinking of all those men and women!
Amen Sistah!
Yep, yep and triple yep!! THANK you to our military helping to make sure this stays the best country in the world 😀
Wow — very powerful. I serve and I am proud to serve. Freedom is not free. Our children, spouses, and family members who support us will tell you that it’s not free as their is the price of our being committed. Thank you for this post. God Bless you and many hugs to you and yours.
Good for you for writing this! We need to be reminded. Appreciation is truly one of the keys to happiness.
This was a wonderful post….mixed with some seriousness and some humor, which only YOU could do beautifully!! This is a good reminder that even though we have plenty of strong opinions about our govt these days, it IS good to have the freedom of choice that we have available to us!
Happy Memorial Day. A friend of mine has a son in Afghanistan. When you know someone over there… it is so much more real. The cost of freedom can be high
Very well said!! Thank you!
And I LOL’d about the potato salad!
Wonderfully humorous post as usual! But also a serious thanks to our military men & women!! 🙂 I was in the USAF, 2 brothers in the Army, and 2 cousins who did long tours of duty in the Navy – joining up was part of something we all felt we wanted to do! I miss it most days ans am so thankful for the folks who do choose to make it part of their life!
Yep, we got our issues but I’m still might proud to be an American. And i cried like a CHILD when I saw a young soldier reunited with his family at the airport this weekend. Oh yes I did…
what is a double wide? just so I know for future reference 🙂
Hear, hear!
Blessings!
I was just commenting on the fact that most people forget what Memorial Day is all about. And it always rains to remind us!!
We do enjoy exquisite freedoms in this country that are taken for granted on a daily basis.
Oh Andy, you are so delightful… It’s really the concatenation of off-hand remarks you make that eventually makes me dissolve into a helpless giggle in the middle of the night. By the time the last paragraph rolls around, so am I… =) It’s the anthropomorphized butt that finally got me, this time. Thanks for sending me off to bed in mighty good cheer.