Memorial Day reflection: How do we say thank you?

I recall Memorial Day, 1995 at the Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium. A Belgian school girl recited these lines: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row,” lines that reminded us of what was sacrificed: “We are the Dead. Short days ago / We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, / Loved and were loved, and now we lie /In Flanders fields.” Belgian school children sang the United States’ national anthem and lay poppies at each of the 368 graves of US soldiers who fell in World War I. The Belgian organizers placed wreaths at the memorial, punctuating the fact that we Americans were guests at that ceremony. You see, the Belgians, like other Europeans, organized and ran these Memorial Day ceremonies to express their gratitude for our nation’s sacrifices in two world wars to liberate their lands. 

How then can we show gratitude to the fallen and their survivors? 

• President Franklin Roosevelt wrote in a letter to Thomas and Alleta Sullivan, whose five sons served and died together on the USS Juneau in World War II, “I offer you the condolences and gratitude of our country. We who remain to carry on the fight must maintain spirit, in the knowledge that such sacrifice was not in vain.” 
• Our entertainers offer other expressions. 
• The character in Saving Private Ryan played by Tom Hanks charged Matt Damon’s character to “Earn it.” 
• The characters of the TV series 7th Heaven performed acts of service in a fallen soldier’s memory. 
• Gary Sinise uses his Lieutenant Dan role in the movie Forrest Gump as a platform for promoting veterans causes.
• Of course, Bob Hope spent a lifetime of Christmases entertaining our forces around the world. 

Over the years, however, I’ve come to learn the greatest expression of gratitude for so great a gift isn’t repayment. It’s demonstrating a changed life that comes from accepting the gift, using the gift, and passing it on. 

• By accepting the gift, we honor its purpose. Those who died in battle joined the military for different reasons but readily accepted the ideals of duty, honor, and country. We too can accept those ideals as our own. West Point’s Cadet Prayer says it well, “Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.” 
• After accepting the gift, we use it by fulfilling its purpose. We can fulfill that purpose by engaging and serving our communities and our country; that is, we citizens can bloom where we’re planted. 
• We pass the gift on by sharing its purpose. We can model those ideals at home, at work, at school, and around the community because the words we speak and the things we do will, on other days and in other places, will bear fruit in the lives of others. 

Let’s therefore honor the fallen for what they have given us – a life of freedom, a country where we can exercise it, and lessons we can apply to our lives – and prove ourselves worthy of those gifts, purchased at a price we remember on Memorial Day.