Thoughts from the back yard on memoial day

[AlArchie]

Yesterday was a fine summer day here, and because my knees are shot, I spent most of it sitting in the screen house watching the world go by. Here's a few thoughts that drifted past on the breeze.

A FLAG OVER BESSEMER

After a long snowy winter with only the pines topping the East Bessemer Bluff, the American Flag is once again crowning that lonely precipice. I've missed it's presence all along but knew that come Memorial Day the Gierls would once again scale the bluff and place our Star Spangled Banner back above our homes.

Sitting in our screened in patio this weekend I was watching as the west wind, stiff and strong, had the flag waving gallantly against a hazy blue sky. On occasion the sky would clear to bright blue and oversized cotton-ball-white cumulus clouds would drift in behind the gray and green south face of the bluff.

Fifty feet in front of my vantage point, our own flag, aloft on a similar breeze saluted it's brother on the bluff, and I wondered how many other flags across the country were standing proud and sharing their strength and wisdom with the populace.

That same strong wind moved the trees and forced the branches to form into waves of green, flowing across the landscape like a living sea. The air was humid and the temperature soared near 90 degrees. All in all a most pleasant weekend to spend in contemplation of our national heritage, and to remember the service men and women who have so valiantly given us of their lives to secure these blessings for us.

On the other side of the world, another wind blows, but it's a hot, dry, dusty wind that blisters 120 degree air across another flag pole and another brother-banner waves just as proud and revered as the ones I watch from my home. Soldiers in full battle gear patrol out from bases near these familiar banners; soldiers more used to summer humidity and cool lakeside retreats, than the harsh conditions of the middle east. Most will return to the familiar red white and blue banner near their bivouac, but a few will return home in coffins draped with that same hallowed cloth.

Some members of our military serve in other parts of the world, and some even serve in our own country. All serve under that same tri-colored flag, their time and lives devoted to serving you and me as we enjoy the blessings of freedom they have secured. On ships in every sea of the world, in strange and harsh lands and in the air above both friendly and hostile territory our soldiers, airmen and sailors tend to the day to day tedium and yes, the terror, that encompasses their existence. And close to each of them are 13 red and white stripes and 50 white stars on a night-sky blue field.

The same colors that fly above Bessemer.........as a reminder.

Al

[Dan Wegiel]

Thanks Al, that was enjoyable, kinda felt like I was in Bessemer.

Dan

[Nancy-G]

Another beautiful message to really "listen" to... really hear.
Thanks Al.
Please keep 'em coming.

[Merle Rice]

Hi Al, You realy know how to put the words together and so enjoyable to read. I enjoyed the one you wrote last year also. Thanks for the good thoughts Al. Merle

[Robert Cahill]

Thank You Al.