Frozen Snippets in Time
Wow, many of our student patients were super happy this week as they made it through another school year!
All the anxieties and stresses of this school year get to be released this weekend. Yes, Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial-official start of summer vacation. Originally known as Decoration Day (according to History.com), Memorial Day was first celebrated in 1866, one year after the Confederacy surrendered in Waterloo, New York. It originated as a day to honor those who gave their lives for this country during the Civil War.
In 1971, Memorial Day became an official federal holiday. And today, we visit cemeteries and hold parades to honor all individuals who have given their lives serving in the U.S. military.
I hope my readers have plans to visit the grave sites of family members who served our country and may have passed from a variety of non-wartime conditions (or who very well may have died in one of our country’s military encounters). Placing flowers, personal mementos, or just talking to them out loud or in prayer may seem trivial or not very productive but, personally, I feel reconnected to my father (who served in WWII) and to my father-in-law (who served in Korea) each time we visit their grave sites.
These little gestures of love and respect are what I feel we need to do several times a year and not just in May. They give a meaning and validation to lives that, let’s be honest, if it weren’t for them… we wouldn’t be here. And if you truly don’t know anyone, take flowers to a nearby cemetery and read the headstones. Veterans aren’t hard to find.
I feel in today’s fast-paced AI world, we have lost touch with our past and lost respect for those who built this country and fought for the freedom we enjoy every day…
I also think it’s our responsibility, as parents, to show by example for our children that grandpa, grandma, uncle, or aunt served in the military and cared so much for our country that many of them gave their lives. It’s not to be taken lightly, no matter what side of the aisle you happen to align with.
Our family has always tried to blend the weekend with a cemetery visit, a cookout, a visit to a museum in Cleveland, and then try to end with an evening fire to reminisce about the day’s activities.
Remember, it is called Memorial Day, yes, to remember our fallen heroes; but I also feel it should be a holiday where each of us can create memories with the living that will live on for years to come.
Think about it… what is a memory?
There are many answers to this question. Personally, I feel a memory is a frozen snippet of time that is stored in our brain to be played back over and over on demand. And yes, we all know these snippets can sometimes just appear in our psyche for no apparent reason. But ask yourself… where would we be without our memories?
So in the interest of making memories this holiday weekend…
Medina and Northern Ohio have so many opportunities to share with your family or out-of-town guests. Medina has everything from hatchet throwing, electric go carts, hiking trails, fishing in Lake Medina, local bands, and concerts at various pubs. Cleveland’s Science Center has a new dinosaur exhibit that delves into how dinosaurs ate, their mobility based on the science of their particular muscle and bone ratio, and several other factual areas on the life cycle and demise of these great creatures of the past. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just announced this year’s Class of 2023 and is honoring them in new exhibits. The passing this week of the Queen of Rock and Roll, Tina Turner, has them scrambling to put together a tribute exhibition to this iconic two-time inductee for this weekend. And you know any chance I get, like a moth to the flame, I head to the Wade Oval and the Cleveland Art Museum or History Museum. And, for the car buffs, there is always the Crawford Auto Museum across the street from the Cleveland Arboretum.
Once you have reinvigorated your mental soul, there is the family’s appetite to satiate. And what better place to do that than Little Italy on Murray Hill? I must add, in honor of my father (an insurance agent who insured a lot of the vendors), if you want to take your family for a unique grocery shopping adventure, you must go to the West Side Market at least once in your life. As I was growing up, my father took me there several times a year as he visited his clients. And the experience has stayed with me as if I had been there yesterday! The sights are one thing, but the combined aroma of fresh-baked bread, super fresh cheeses, meats, fish, and vegetables is something that words alone do not do justice. Today, many of the vendors offer lunch sandwiches and small hot plates of everything from goulash to pierogies, even sauerkraut or chili dogs that are so fresh, I swear they almost bark!
Just a few ideas of how to get out and create some snippets of your own for you and your loved ones…
Remember, memories can only be made in the present and once the time has passed, it is never to be captured again.
I do not want my readers on Tuesday morning next week to be plagued with the woulda-coulda-shoulda guilt and an empty memory bank with no snippets to recall from Memorial Day Weekend. You have been warned! Get out there and enjoy your loved ones and life while you are able!
In closing, I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of my family and staff, to wish all my readers a healthy and joyous Memorial Day weekend full of very special snippets!
To making memories,
Dr. Pfister