Memorial Day

Do you really know why we started having this holiday?
I mean, do you really know?

"It's a day to honor the military, right?"

You're halfway to being correct.  It's a day to honor the military dead; a day to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.  It's not technically a day to honor veterans (That's Veterans day on November 11.), although it is a lot easier to thank them for what they did than thanking the dead because they can actually hear you.  So, I'm not saying you're terrible and wrong for thanking our veterans.  It's just a friendly reminder because, ironically, we sometimes forget what Memorial Day is really about.

Memorial Day's origins date back to the Civil War.  Some say it is inspired by Southern women who would go and decorate the graves.  Eventually this practice spread to the North, and the first formal Decoration Day, as it was originally called, took place on May 30, 1868.  Eventually, this got changed to being the last Monday of May so we can have three day weekends.

Because that's what's important right?  Having days off and barbecuing and going to parades and whatever else it is Americans do to celebrate the holiday.  I mean, that's what this is for, right?

Allow me to cite you some statistics:
Number of fatalities in the Civil War:  Approximately 620,000

• 2% of the population died in the conflict
• The combined total of fatalities in all other American wars did not exceed this total until the Vietnam War.
• In today's numbers, imagine if over the last four years, America had lost six million men and women in war.
• One in four Civil War soldiers did not return home; approximately three and a half million men (and a few disguised women) fought in the Civil War
• In today's numbers, that would mean we would have sent approximately thirty-four million servicemen and women out.
• The  US military only has approximately one and a half million active duty personnel.
• Two thirds died from disease.
• That's approximately 413,333 dead from disease; only 206,667 from battle.
• Our today numbers would then translate to four million dead from disease and a "mere" two million dead from battle.
• These statistics are only the fatalities, not the casualties (which includes those killed, wounded, and captured/missing), whose numbers were not matched in all other wars combined until our current War on Terror.

Do you understand the price that was paid alone in the war that inspired this holiday?  I'm not even citing you the statistics from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, the War on Terror, and any other conflicts (i.e., the Quasi War with France, the Indian wars) that Americans have been involved with.

Maybe America is not the country she started out as.  Maybe we romanticize the way things were in the past.  But the fact still remains that the freedoms we have have been preserved because of the sacrifice millions of men and women have made.  This sacrifice has not just been made by those who enlisted and paid the ultimate price of their lives--their families and friends also felt the pain of that sacrifice.  Although I can't think of anyone I personally know who has died in war, I have had lifelong friends who have been deployed, and I have prayed for their safety because I know how devastated I would be if anything happened to them.  But I'm lucky.  Not everyone my age has been so lucky.  The current war has roots in an attack that took place on my country when I was eleven.  How many other twenty-two year old women, both nowadays and throughout history, have had to hear the terrible news that their brother, their sister, their husband, their father, their boyfriend is now dead?

I have been interested in history since I was seven, and my first fascination was with World War II.  Now my main fascination is the Civil War.  Not a generation of Americans has not felt the horrors of war to some extent.  We have either romanticized or demonized it.  But at the end of the day, no matter how good a cause was fought for, no matter who won or lost, no matter how the war was perceived by the public, every war has required its participants to sacrifice.

And the ultimate sacrifice is what we honor on this Memorial Day.

Sources

The Civil War. Dir. Ken Burns. PBS. 1990. DVD-ROM. 
"Civil War Casualties." Civil War Trust. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 May 2013.
"Memorial Day History." Memorial Day. N.p., 4 Apr. 2009. Web. 26 May 2013. 

Books and Me

So, I've kind of had this problem for a really long time.  Only, I suppose it's not really a problem.  I mean, it really is a good thing.  They say too much of a good thing is a bad thing, but I fail to see how that applies in my case.

I love books.

Books, books, books.

Novels, classics, historical fiction, biographies, histories, fairy tales, picture books, even the occasional book about science--you name it, I read it.  I don't know how long this has been going on for, but since I turn twenty-three in July, probably it's been going on for nearly twenty-three years now?  I mean, I can't really remember a time when I wasn't asking my parents to "Read a book."  I'm one of those kids who grew up in a house surrounded by books.  I tried reading Charlotte's Web in kindergarten when my parents bought it for me, but I stopped because because it wasn't like the movie.  Fortunately, I tried it again the next year in first grade and succeeded.

I still did manage to get my first chapter book in during kindergarten though--Edwin and Emily.  I think it was only about three or four chapters long, but it was second grade level, and it did have black and white pictures, so I have definitely always counted it as my first chapter book.  I can't tell you the name of the first book I read--whether it was some book assigned to me from preschool or if I did it on my own at home, but I always remember that my first chapter book was Edwin and Emily.

Anyway, so, as I was saying, I don't have a book problem.  My wallet only escaped Barnes & Noble today within an inch of it's life but I don't have a book problem!  (Mom, if you're reading this, let's just say that this was my regular early summer trip to Barnes & Noble to determine what books I want for her birthday.  I'm currently work on narrowing it down, even though it's painful.)  I mean, I wasn't even aware until last year sometime that apparently "bookworm" is a negative term.  I always thought it was a good thing because reading is a good thing.  I mean, yes, I do like hanging out with people, but even with as much of a social butterfly as I can be, something wonderful can be found in just spending time reading.

Just look at that little guy!  Isn't he awesome?

Yes, you could possibly point out the fact that I have no shelf space in my apartment left for books.  That is also a false statement.  I will simply find some way to condense the items on my closet shelves in order to make room for more books.  You know, if I buy anymore before I move this summer.  There is always room in my life for more books.  If we lived in a time and place where there was the dowry system, my husband-to-be would be forced to accept my books as my dowry because my parents would never have a chance to save up for one because their daughter just kept NEEDING books and book shelves.

Maybe I should just move into Barnes & Noble.  They have all the shelf space I need.

Quite honestly, the most dangerous thing someone could ever do is give me an all-expense paid shopping spree to Barnes & Noble.

Yes, basically I'm one of those people who was born with a book list she will never finish.  I mean, why do I want more books for my birthday when I probably easily have several dozen in my apartment I haven't read yet?  Because I'm a bibliophiliac, a bookworm, a readaholic.  I'm always reading something.  No, wait, I'm always reading several books.






"Don't you get the plots all confused?"

How in the world could one get the plot lines of Les Miserables, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, The Odyssey, and the Bible confused?

Your brain has just now attempted to combine all of those, hasn't it?  See what I mean?

The reason some might think plot lines would get confused is because they only read one genre of book.  I mean, if you're obsessed with vampires, I can see how you would get your plots confused.  Although, I really hope that you wouldn't imagine Bella in love with Dracula, because I've read about half of Dracula, and...he doesn't sparkle.  (No, I haven't read Twilight at all.  But I've heard enough.)  And, honestly, even back when basically almost all I read was historical fiction and Baby-Sitter's Club, I didn't get the plot lines confused.  I mean, yes, Anastasia Krupnik, Blubber, Lindsey, and The 7 1/2 Sins of Stacey Kendall did kind of all blend together once upon a time, but after I reread them, everything sorted itself back out all right.

"You reread books?"

Yes, because a terribly wonderful book deserves to be read over and over again.  And "terribly wonderful" doesn't always mean it won awards or that the author made a ton of money.  What makes a terribly wonderful book is how it touched your life.  I could read a Pulitzer novel and walk away completely unaffected--bored out of my mind even (This has happened.).  However, a book few people may have heard of can touch your life so deeply and personally that you and the book become friends for life.  You come back to that book like a child who comes back to its favorite toy no matter how many new ones the parents buy.  Maybe it looks old and raggedy and worn out, but you don't care because the words within are what matters most.  These are the words that made you laugh, that made you cry, that proved to you that you are not alone.

And that is why reading is so wonderful.