DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Memorial Day.

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Sorry for your loss.

I’m going to try to put into words what I feel when I see a picture like this.

When I see an elderly person, I can’t imagine them as a young adult. They are just an old fart. An old, weak, ugly fart.

I’m thinking about that expression: “Getting old sucks, but it beats the alternative.”

Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it’s just “Getting old sucks.”

If you’re an athiest, the only thing that remains when someone dies are memories. If they are old, that’s what remains. If someone dies young, the memories are of a young, vivacious person.

The human life-time is not much longer than a fruitfly’s. (a fruitfly doesn't perceive it's life-time as 40 days)

If that picture was taken in 1995, all those geezers on the left are dead.

This is as close as I could get to expressing my thoughts on the above picture. And it’s not very close.

No, I haven’t been drinkin’.

One must earn geezerhood.

At what point do you attain geezerhood? Is it a feeling, an action, a chronological age?

Geezerhood is a title attained through hard work, wise investment, and years of accomplishment. It is generally marked with a whitening of one's hair and a satisfaction in the remarkable achievement of having raised to adulthood the next generation of snot nosed kids.
-40

By your definition I have no opportunity to attain geezerhood since I decided not to propagate the species.

I suppose I'll be young forever.

It is sad to know there shall be no more Tulsa's after you pass but if you promise to hang in there long enough, I will designate you an Honorary Geezer.

Forever young is probably not in your cards.

Good God no!

No hanging in there! I want to go before I lose what's left of my mind. I've seen to many family members completely lose their marbles in the remaining years only to spend each day not knowing it's a new day.

I'll gladly give up geezer status if it means I know my own name before I pass.

Losing one's memory and understanding is only a curse to those on the outside who witness it. You on the other hand will have no clue it has happened.

Your new world will consist of peaceful thoughts and nice ladies washing your butt for you.

You have such a wonderful way with words, 40'...

I think its a sad end to a proud life.

Can't think of a happy end to a proud life. However it ends, so long as you can be proud of it when the time comes is what matters.

Sissies don't get old.


What a way to go, really. lol

When you can no longer snatch the pebble from my hand grasshopper you will be a geezer, and it will be time for you to go.

Today we have our annual release of ladybugs in honor of my sister who died six years ago on May 25 at the age of 42.

She loved ladybugs and had paintings, knick knacks and even a tattoo of them. As it is springtime you can get dormant ladybugs from garden centers for your garden. Every year, since her passing we have bought a bunch, allowed them to wake in the sunshine cooked a nice dinner, corked a bottle of wine and raised a toast to her life and then released them into our garden onto our flowers and shrubs.

I am not religious but, I often see ladybugs at amazing times and in amazing places and I see them as a spiritual sign that my sister is with me.

I want to remind the board that just because it's Memorial Day and you have a day off.....

Doesn't mean you can eat just anybody's potato salad.

That is a nice thought and practice you talk about. Thanks for sharing it.

I am sure Sis would give it a big...

As an English teacher I'm going to give you a small assignment. Read the poem "To an Athlete Dying Young"

D4L:

Thanks 4 the assignment. Here’s how it went:

I got very little out of the poem itself.

I had to devote too much concentration trying to interpret the specific meaning of words and sentences to appreciate the big picture. And I couldn’t interpret several stanzas.

For instance: “Now you will not swell the rout”

What?

“Swell”? Isn’t that “inflammation”? (like in “make the swelling go down”)
“Rout”? Isn’t that a terrible beating? (“Tribe won 12-to-0, what a rout”)

I have no clue what that sentence says.

This was too hard. I’m not well schooled in poetry. (and I will not be buying Housman's A Shropshire Lad any time soon.)

What I do know is what the poem is about thanks to the many interpretations of it available online (For instance with Shmooped).

I understand the relevance of your recommendation of this poem to my ambivalence on life. (“Growing old sucks (but maybe it doesn’t beat the alternative))

Let me tell you about a poem I understand:

I once knew a man from Nantucket…

Some of all....a feeling by others, attitude by you, and yes, you need at least 6 decades of experience to share.

Sorry to hear Swish. My prayers go out to his family.

Ironically I just came from the Vietnam memorial wall website and read this. I visit the website every memorial day to say a prayer for someone I knew and was close to our family. 22 years old and killed in 1967. He was from Willowick and his mother and my grandmother were the closest as friends can get. I was only 10 but looked up to him.

Again, sorry to hear. Thanks to him, to you, and to all who have served.

I just read a news article that a bunch of volunteers are out and cleaning this memorial. It's good to know there are still people in CA that understand what these people gave for them.

While I appreciate people that thank me for my service..

I have spent way too much time this weekend educating people on what Memorial Day is actually about..

"No that's Armed Forces day.. No that would be Veterans day.."

Then there's the obvious percentage of the population that just sees "Three Day Weekend" or "Dammit the banks are closed"

I don't ask for too much, I don't even care if they agree with "war"..

You still have to respect the choice.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces.[1] The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May,[2] originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers.[3] By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.[1] It marks the start of the unofficial summer vacation season,[4] while Labor Day marks its end.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.[weasel words]

Annual Decoration Days for particular cemeteries are held on a Sunday in late spring or early summer in some rural areas of the American South, notably in the mountain areas. In cases involving a family graveyard where remote ancestors as well as those who were deceased more recently are buried, this may take on the character of an extended family reunion to which some people travel hundreds of miles. People gather on the designated day and put flowers on graves and renew contacts with relatives and others. There often is a religious service and a picnic-like "dinner on the grounds," the traditional term for a potluck meal at a church. It is believed that this practice began before the American Civil War and thus may reflect the real origin of the "memorial day" idea.[5]

Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day; Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, while Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans.[6]