Remembering and forgetting, Part 1

It seems to be human nature that we tend to forget things that need to be remembered and we remember things that it would be better to forget.

We even have a national holiday, Memorial Day to help us remember. It began way back at the end of the Civil War to honor the fallen Union soldiers. For many of us today its simply a paid holiday to get together with family and friends and have a picnic. Yet in thousands of villages and cities across this great nation people gather round in public squares and parks and cemeteries for the purpose of remembering. Veterans who were fortunate to come back from battle serve as the colorguard, a wreath is laid at the monument, remarks are made, then the gun salute. Finally, the mournful solemn sound of "Taps" played on a trumpet. It's a sound that can send a chill down your spine, or a tear to the eye..... to consider what it might have been like for these fallen heroes to have taken their last breath in a desperate and lonely place so far away from home.

"Lest we forget" is inscribed on the bottom of the monument erected last year in the park next to the library in my home town. Its in remembrance of four of my brother's buddies/peers that came back from Vietnam in a casket:

Tom Gopp
Gregg Heidrich
Claude Howard
Larry Walton

The polished stone is so reflective that this photo had to be taken at this angle in order to see the names, as opposed to seeing the photographer's image in the stone. Seeing our own image reflected in a monument honoring fallen heroes can be a reminder to all of us, that it was for us, for all of us collectively, that they died.

The tradition of erecting monuments of remembrance dates back thousands of years. When God delivered the nation of Israel across the Jordan River in about 1406 BC, finally bringing them into the promised land, they were instructed to pile up 12 stones, one for each of the 12 tribes. "We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.” (Joshua 4: 6-7 NLT)

It could be said that all of our history books were written for the sake of remembering. The recounting of critical points in history can have a powerful effect as was illustrated in Erin Gruwell's story of the Freedom Writers. When she intercepted a racial caricature being circulated around her classroom and compared it to the Nazi caricatures of Jews during the holocaust, she was appalled to learn that many of her students had never heard of the holocaust. She then had the class view the film, Schindler's List and read the Diary of Anne Frank. Students who were simply trying to survive the battlegrounds in their homes and neighborhoods began to connect in meaningful ways with people in other kinds of battles, from distant times and places.

The history of the Jewish nation from the time of slavery in Egypt to David's reign as recorded in Psalm 77 was repeated over and over from one generation to the next, so as not to forget... "I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders...."