Assuming you’re not packing up and leaving the country (sorry, I couldn’t resist), perhaps you’ll join me in celebrating our Veterans on Monday. I have a couple of ideas for us.

We could visit a Veterans Memorial or Cemetery. Contrary to some social media posts, Veterans Day honors both fallen and living Veterans. (Memorial Day is meant to specifically honor those who paid the ultimate price.) If the flags haven’t been removed for the winter, we could straighten a few.

We could go to a Veterans Day event. It may take some searching, or you could create your own. Put up a flag! Some years ago, during a trip to Arlington National Cemetery, a group of us ended up in an ice cream shop. Some folks come in wearing uniforms. With little fanfare, my young nieces Lindsi and Abigail paid their bills. Does that give you an idea for creating an event?

We could create a moment of silence. That sounds simple, but you can only concentrate on what our veterans have made possible for us all. My moment will include the poem, “In Flanders Fields.”¹ An important stanza from that poem is:

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
       The torch; be yours to hold it high.
       If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
                                In Flanders fields.

Sometimes I worry that we’ve caught the torch but dropped it instead of holding it high. That thought leaves me haunted by the millions of veterans who cannot sleep.

Moina Michael is credited with starting the tradition of wearing a red poppy and seeing it adopted as a symbol of remembrance for war veterans by the American Legion Auxiliary and by Earl Haig’s British Legion Appeal Fund (later The Royal British Legion). The orginal poppies were made by veterans from crepe paper and sold as a way of raising funds for veterans support. But more importantly, as a simple way to show support of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defending freedom across the globe. She also wrote a poem assuring those who sleep we have the torch and are keeping faith.

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the faith
With all who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the torch and poppy red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

The poppies are getting hard to find. But we can still wear one in our head and heart. And spend a moment or two thinking about holding tightly the torch.

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1. Read the entire story of the significance of the Veterans Day Poppy. ↩︎
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Shall_Keep_the_Faith ↩︎