okieinexile
Well-Known Member
Remember
By Bobby Neal Winters
The 3rd of September is a day my brother and I mark every year. Either I will call him or he will call me, because on September 3, 1971 our Grampa Sam passed away. He was the first person who was close to us who died after we were old enough to understand it, but he wasn’t the last. He was the Grampa who was always around and taught us a lot of the things a boy should know, and if he’d lived, he’d taught us a lot of things a man should know, but that was left to others.
We mark this day and remember it. It has been thirty three years. On September 11, 2001, some bookshelves in my office fell down, and my computer came up running in “safe” mode which is never a good thing, but I doubt I would remember either of those things having happened, or at least not the date, had “the events of September 11th” not occurred. Even the existence of that phrase says a lot. For one thing, these “events” are of such great importance to us, that I needn’t even put flesh on them, and for another, they left such an emotional scar we dare not say more.
It’s been three years now, but we still remember. It is still fresh. Though we as a people have diverse opinions about how to deal with those events, when we remember that day, when we run our mental movie, we are one. They unite us.
There are portions of the Bible where it mentions God remembering. Those who have a less personal notion of God find that odd, but I am told that God’s remembering often deals with salvation of some sort. Rachael pled to the Lord to give her a child, and God remembered her and opened her womb and gave her a child. That child was named Joseph, and Joseph saved his people from famine. Later the children of Israel became slaves in Egypt, so in remembering the story of Joseph, we are reminded that salvation can turn into slavery.
In the book of Esther, King Ahasuerus is being read to from his annals because of his insomnia and is reminded that Mordecai saved his life, and through this the Jews are saved from destruction.
It is an ancient practice to associate some physical object with an important event in order to aid the memory of that event. Someone like Jacob would build an altar. Others would raise a stone. When my wife and I were in Stillwater going to school, we heard about “The Hitler Tree” which belonged to one of the fraternities. A member of the fraternity had taken part in the Berlin Olympics and had been given a tree by Adolph Hitler for his efforts. That tree stood there as reminder of evil.
But there are those who would have us forget. I’ve seen many bumper stickers that in reference to the Civil War say, “You lost / Get over it.” While much of the South’s memory of the Civil War is even yet intermixed with racism, that memory must be kept alive for the sake of redemption, for the hope of salvation.
In the same vein, this is another bumper sticker that reads, “He died in 33 AD / Get over it,” would have Christians forget one of the two key moments of their faith.
While the sentiment that life must go on is a helpful one, if we just “get over it,” we would become a people without a past and be no better off than the girl in Fifty First Dates whose memory of the day’s events is erased every night. The past shapes the future, and our memory gives meaning to both.
I remember the sound the leaves made on the September 3rd Grampa Sam died and, just as vividly, the feel of the air to my skin on September 11 when the Towers came down. Other than the horror, it was such a pleasant day.
We all have our individual memories, but folks like Bruce Springsteen can etch it into our culture as he did in his song “The Rising” which has a phrase, “There’s spirits above and behind me / Faces gone black, eyes burnin’ bright / May their precious blood bind me / Lord, as I stand before your fiery light.”
We remember, and the blood of those who died binds us into one. Let us remember and pray for peace.
By Bobby Neal Winters
The 3rd of September is a day my brother and I mark every year. Either I will call him or he will call me, because on September 3, 1971 our Grampa Sam passed away. He was the first person who was close to us who died after we were old enough to understand it, but he wasn’t the last. He was the Grampa who was always around and taught us a lot of the things a boy should know, and if he’d lived, he’d taught us a lot of things a man should know, but that was left to others.
We mark this day and remember it. It has been thirty three years. On September 11, 2001, some bookshelves in my office fell down, and my computer came up running in “safe” mode which is never a good thing, but I doubt I would remember either of those things having happened, or at least not the date, had “the events of September 11th” not occurred. Even the existence of that phrase says a lot. For one thing, these “events” are of such great importance to us, that I needn’t even put flesh on them, and for another, they left such an emotional scar we dare not say more.
It’s been three years now, but we still remember. It is still fresh. Though we as a people have diverse opinions about how to deal with those events, when we remember that day, when we run our mental movie, we are one. They unite us.
There are portions of the Bible where it mentions God remembering. Those who have a less personal notion of God find that odd, but I am told that God’s remembering often deals with salvation of some sort. Rachael pled to the Lord to give her a child, and God remembered her and opened her womb and gave her a child. That child was named Joseph, and Joseph saved his people from famine. Later the children of Israel became slaves in Egypt, so in remembering the story of Joseph, we are reminded that salvation can turn into slavery.
In the book of Esther, King Ahasuerus is being read to from his annals because of his insomnia and is reminded that Mordecai saved his life, and through this the Jews are saved from destruction.
It is an ancient practice to associate some physical object with an important event in order to aid the memory of that event. Someone like Jacob would build an altar. Others would raise a stone. When my wife and I were in Stillwater going to school, we heard about “The Hitler Tree” which belonged to one of the fraternities. A member of the fraternity had taken part in the Berlin Olympics and had been given a tree by Adolph Hitler for his efforts. That tree stood there as reminder of evil.
But there are those who would have us forget. I’ve seen many bumper stickers that in reference to the Civil War say, “You lost / Get over it.” While much of the South’s memory of the Civil War is even yet intermixed with racism, that memory must be kept alive for the sake of redemption, for the hope of salvation.
In the same vein, this is another bumper sticker that reads, “He died in 33 AD / Get over it,” would have Christians forget one of the two key moments of their faith.
While the sentiment that life must go on is a helpful one, if we just “get over it,” we would become a people without a past and be no better off than the girl in Fifty First Dates whose memory of the day’s events is erased every night. The past shapes the future, and our memory gives meaning to both.
I remember the sound the leaves made on the September 3rd Grampa Sam died and, just as vividly, the feel of the air to my skin on September 11 when the Towers came down. Other than the horror, it was such a pleasant day.
We all have our individual memories, but folks like Bruce Springsteen can etch it into our culture as he did in his song “The Rising” which has a phrase, “There’s spirits above and behind me / Faces gone black, eyes burnin’ bright / May their precious blood bind me / Lord, as I stand before your fiery light.”
We remember, and the blood of those who died binds us into one. Let us remember and pray for peace.
