Remembering Our Fallen Soldiers This Memorial Day

People who are soldiers bring their fighting skills to the battle field foremost, but they also bring themselves. They are our talented children, our fathers, our sons, the members of our families. We have watched them, rejoiced in their efforts, achievements and their talents. We have experienced their love, their imprint on us. They bring this to the battlefield and when they fight, they are colored by their talents and their experiences. They follow their mission to the best of their training, their abilities and their strengths. When they achieve there, we do not always see it, know it, but we know them. We know their dedication, their personality, their desire to get the job done.

When they are lost, we do not see them as a number of those who sacrificed their life, we see them as our talented son, daughter, father, mother, cousin, friend, soldier. We see them as the individuals they were to us, and to their unit, to their victory of selfless sacrifice. We honor them, we honor them as no other could be honored. They are one of us, who were sent on our behalf, by those we gave that power to send to. We bear the responsibility of their loss, we feel that pain.  We do not, cannot forget. In the human memory there is a place for those who before their time, gave their life for a reason greater then their own desires. If we have a consciousness against any present war or conflict where they have died, we take up the banner for them, to defend those who are at the command of who we have elected. We must and should become the second wave of warrior to help change the course of unnecessary bloodshed, but our caveat is this, to know what is necessary and what is not.

I am ever full of thanks for those who serve and I teach this respect to all I can reach. In an airport in Amsterdam, I thanked a former marine. In the place I get my haircut, I thanked a soldier there, when he said he was shipping out. I never forget when I see someone because I live in a state of sincere thankfulness for their sacrifice and service.

This post first appeared on Open Salon, May 28, 2011 as a portion of a larger blog entry called Memorial Day Melange. It had been written after a 2 week trip to Germany, where there were still many memories of WWII.

Copyright 2011 by SheilaTGTG55

Who Are You?

JUST WHO ARE YOU ANYWAY?

Sometimes it is fun to think about yourself differently. With this series of questions, a blogger on Open Salon challenged all of us to learn more about ourselves. As we shared with each other, we understood more about each writer. Since I would like to introduce myself to you, I am sharing this. You might even enjoy doing this little exercise too. Enjoy!

Sheila’s 33

1. Your main trait: Creative intellectual mind.

2. The quality you like best in a man: Intelligence.

3. The quality you like best in a woman: Intelligence.

4. Your main flaw:  Over thinking.

5. Last time you cried: When I left my daughter at school in another state.

6. Ideal job:  Creative director.

7. Scent of a place:  My grandmother's kitchen.

8. Beloved movie:  Love Actually, in the past The Sound of Music.

9. Book on the nightstand:   Books are everywhere here, currently a Clive Cussler piece but that is this moment.

10. First and best kiss:   On a school bus going to a speech tournament in High School as a freshman. Too many best kisses, but one that stands out, at Wharton, by a small pond, extremely romantic for a girl of 19.

11. You couldn’t do without:  Seriously, my husband and my gym shoes.

12. How you would like to die:  Peacefully is good, quick is good, unknowingly is good.

13. Song you sing in the shower:  Yeah, don't do that anymore, but something strong and blues like would have been a pick.

14. Your deadly sin: Yeah, I don't really fuss about health issues, and probably that is bad. I have never liked people obsessed with it and damn I refuse to be that person.

15. Your not-so-deadly sin: I like to think too much.

16. Your motto:   I work for a genderless, equity filled society where no one looks at you first as your sex, but instead sees your intelligence and ideas.

17. Ideal first date:  Well, dinner and movie, not necessarily in that order. Coffee dates are good too.

18. Favorite present: Ha, jewelry, preferably something honking big. Shiny diamonds are best.

19. In the train:  I have some great European train memories as a young person. Great train memories going to work in Chicago and not so great ones on the way to Amsterdam last year...

20. Something you’d change in your body:  I work everyday to be at peace with what I cannot change.

21. Your addiction:   Thinking too much about things that sometimes do not even matter. 

22. Now on your left:   French doors to the garden.

 23. Now on your right:   Black and white photograph of a horse statue from Ruidoso New Mexico, Museum of the Horse.

24. Now in front of you:  Black and white photo of Hollywood Boulevard for the 28th Academy Awards in 1956.

25. Now behind you:  A pair of black and white photos from WWII aerial reconnaissance missions in South America by my father.

26. Names for your children: S. Gerhardt, H. Berhardt, K. Maria

27. 3 things in your purse: Lipstick, phone, wallet.

28. 3 places that fascinate you:  Museums anywhere, haunted places and mountains.

29. 3 people you’d like to meet: Whoopi Goldberg, Cary Grant, Abe Lincoln.

30. 3 traits you hate in people: The litany of their illnesses, their selfishness, their ignorance.

31. Values inherited from your parents:  Being welcoming, hard working and having a spiritual reference.

32. In your past life your were:   I am inclined to think I was someone persecuted in WWII in Europe, probably a Jewish person in Germany. That said, I once told my mother I thought I was a 18th century French courtesan.

33. In your future life you’ll be: Still working out the issues I find in this one....

If you happen by and read this, why not try it yourself? You might be surprised what you might learn. This was done a while back, but if done today, the answers might be nearly the same.

Copyright 2012 by Sheila Luecht