Thank Goodness It's Monday #306

MEMORIAL DAY LESSONS

So how’s your long weekend been so far?

• Celebrating the “official” start of summer?
• On the road to the beach, mountains, lakeside, park getaway and taking note of higher gas prices?
• Doing your part to stimulate the economy shopping the spectacular (they say) sales?
• Firing up the backyard grill and still trying to get the pool water clear and pH balanced?
• Thinking about catching some summer blockbuster at the multiplex?
• Just veggin’ out ‘til Tuesday?

Well why are you at your computer reading this? (Just kidding -- sort of.) 

I hope you really make the most of this Memorial Day.  

But while you do: I also hope you’ll take some time – alone or with friends and family – to contemplate: 

The meaning of Memorial Day. The profusion of local parades and municipal celebrations that some of us can recall seems greatly diminished these days. Although hundreds of thousands of men and women, in the service of the nation, are actively engaged and in danger in many corners of the world, it seems the original basis for commemorating Memorial Day slips further from our minds and activities. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Take a moment today to get back to the core of Memorial Day. To get the dialogue started, here’s some background and two Takeaways to consider: 

Here’s the background: Waterloo, New York claims it started the first formal Memorial Day practice of decorating soldiers’ graves in 1866. A pharmacist there, Henry C. Welles, suggested to a veterans’ organization that the graves of Civil War dead be decorated. 

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania claims it was doing something similar earlier.  

Either way, in the following years, other cities, states and organizations initiated similar events on a variety of dates. Often, in the states that made up the Confederacy, significant Southern victories or personalities were memorialized. 

After WWI the American Legion took on the task of trying to unify these “decoration day” commemorations on one day. It gave the patriotic observances the “official” name Memorial Day and expanded the concept to honor all American service people from all wars and conflicts.

Miss Matt Moreton,
Mrs J.T. Fontaine,
Mrs. Green T. Hill and
Mrs. Augusta Murdock Sykes
are credited with beginning
Decoration Day
in Columbus, Mississippi.

For our purposes this Memorial Day, let’s go back to the origins for a moment to find lessons worth learning.

Some historians think that both Waterloo, NY and Boalsburg, PA got the idea from a newspaper article in Horace Greeley's New York Tribune featuring women from Columbus, Mississippi who spread flowers on the graves of BOTH Confederate AND Union soldiers as an act of friendship and understanding between North and South at the end of the Civil War.

The story of the unprejudiced acts of these women led to widespread interest in impartial commemorations in memory of the dead. It is seen as a "healing touch for the nation."

We like this version of the day’s origin for two reasons:

#1: It recognizes that, no matter who is victorious or whose cause is “right,” the ultimate sacrifice made in pursuit of sincerely held beliefs is no less painful for the living of either side.

TGIM Takeaway: One of the most effective ways to begin to reach reconciliation and consensus is to find the places conflicting groups hold in common. This principle works at all levels of life, from negotiations with your kids to resolving global conflicts.

#2: One small idea, quietly initiated by a handful of presumably modest individuals, gave rise to a National Holiday.  

TGIM Takeaway: Think of it as another example of The Law of Slight Edge in action –  

Small changes, over time, make a big difference. 

I hope this Memorial Day provides you with a moment to reflect on the ideas of contribution and sacrifice as well as effective ways we all can contribute to making a Best Year Ever for ourselves and our world.

Go Forward! 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631

201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com    

P.S. The post-Civil War-era poem The Blue And The Gray by Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907) is said to be inspired by reports of the actions by the ladies from Columbus. Here’s the last stanza:

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.