Monthly Archives: May 2020

How to Celebrate Memorial Day in 2020? Wear a Mask

Poppies in a field -- How to Celebrate Memorial Day

Photo by Laurentiu Iordache on Unsplash

There’s been a lot of talk in our country as of late about personal freedom. This conversation is especially relevant as tomorrow marks the 152nd Memorial Day celebration in the United States. So I have a recommendation for how to celebrate memorial day 2020 given our current situation — Wear a mask!

Memorial Day began as a way to honor the 620,000 soldiers killed during the Civil War. When the United States entered World War I, Memorial Day expanded to include those killed in all wars. It was officially recognized as a national holiday in 1971, while the United States fought during the Vietnam War.

To the men, women, and animals who have died serving the United States– thank you. The freedom I enjoy every day comes from your sacrifices.

Since I will never serve in the military, I will never know this level of sacrifice. That does not mean I will not protect my country to the best of my ability.

It is for this reason, that I continue to wear a mask as the death toll from COVID-19 approaches the 100,000 mark.

It’s such a simple thing to do. At no time wearing a mask do I feel like my personal liberties or freedom are being impinged upon. On the contrary, I think about the people I am protecting and how their lives can remain free from the burden, suffering, and even death from a preventable disease.

It is not much, but it is something  I can do. And I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve in this way.

I don’t think I’ll ever be brave enough to offer my life for this country. But ask me to wear a mask to protect it?

Yeah, I can do that.

Wearing a mask even sounds kind of trivial when I think about the sacrifices of our soldiers. These women and men who put their lives on the line for me and for my freedom and all I’m being asked to do is strap some material across my face when I go out in public?

Of course I can do that!

So when we discuss how to honor those who died and how to celebrate memorial day 2020, sign me up for wearing a mask.

I’ll gladly wear a mask for the people I love. I’ll wear a mask for my friends and neighbors. I’ll wear a mask for the people living in nursing homes. I’ll wear a mask for our healthcare workers. And I’ll wear a mask to protect those veterans who survived war. Because they deserve the very best I can offer.

A good friend of mine shared with me this YouTube video her son created for the #NewYorkTough Wear A Mask PSA Contest. It makes my point far more beautifully than I ever could. You can watch the video here.

A man wears a face mask that reads "For Maria" - How to Celebrate Memorial Day

Image from Mike Schneberg #NewYorkTough PSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3UURdY6FQY

Here are two of the people I wear a mask for:

An older woman gets licked by a border collie while her friend laughs - Honoring Those Who Served

This is Cecily. She’s Dodger’s mom. Obviously, I love her on that fact alone. But Cecily is a hilarious, witty, talented, kind, and generous woman who has opened her heart and home to Heath and me when we needed a place to stay.

Of course, I will wear a mask to keep Cecily safe. It’s the least I can do!

This is Barbara.

A senior citizen poses with a bouquet of flowers - How to Celebrate Memorial Day

Barbara and I met during my first month in Norfolk during the creative writing group at the Congregational Church. When Barbara’s husband of 60+ years died in October 2017, I imagined what it would be like if something happened to Heath and how lonely that would feel. Coming over for tea and company is what I would want someone to do for me, so I started going over to Barbara’s house for (mostly) weekly tea dates. We have such a nice time together, and Barbara has two excellent recliner chairs where we drink our tea, listen to classical music, and sometimes nap because the music is so relaxing.

I wear my mask for Barbara, too. She deserves not to have her health put at risk for circumstances she can’t control.

So on this Memorial Day, let us continue honoring those who died. We choose how to celebrate Memorial Day and the lives lost by being good citizens.

Let our soldiers’ sacrifices not be in vain.

Let us make sure that in our pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, we start with life.

Protect each other.

It’s that simple.

Adorable dog wearing a photoshopped patriotic hat - how to celebrate Memorial Day

Celebrating Mother’s Day 2020

Celebrating Mother's Day 2020 1

I’m at a loss today for what to say to all the people celebrating Mother’s Day. As a writer, I feel compelled to make my sentiments witty and heartfelt, with a dash hilarity. Yet, I don’t have it in me today. I suspect part of it is quarantine fatigue. I miss seeing my friends and friends who are family.

I suspect it also may be because I’m just tired today. I’ve had a few especially long and emotional days in a row. On Wednesday at 4:50pm, I took Dodger to the vet and we found out he had an abscess that needed to be removed ASAP. I picked him up on Thursday morning at 8:00am and brought him back to the vet.

Celebrating Mother's Day 2020 2

On our way to the vet Thursday morning. You can tell he felt poopy.

Around 3:00pm I got a call that everything had gone well, but he was still quite loopy from the anesthetia. When I picked him up at 6:00pm, Dodger stumbled out with the vet tech. I opened the car door for him and before the tech could help him up, he tried to jump into the backseat of Cecily’s car. This feat would be no problem for regular Dodger. Dopey Dodger, however, belly flopped as the tech and I gasped in horror.

As Dodger recovers (he’s doing well, btw), he can’t be a free-range dog in Cecily’s yard and always needs to be on a leash. For the past three days, I’ve been getting to Cecily’s around 8:00am to take Dodger out and give him his medicine. It’s a break in routine and I even missed meditating this morning, only the fifth time in 2020 that I’ve missed my morning meditation practice.

Like a lot of other people, I haven’t been sleeping well anyway from the stress and uncertainty about what’s going to happen with the pandemic.

We’ve also had some really weird weather as of late, what with freezing cold temperatures and snow. It’s not often you see forsythias blooming and snow on the ground. Third Winter is definitely messing with my mind just a bit.

Celebrating Mother's Day 2020 3 Celebrating Mother's Day 2020 4

Add in the typical sleep problems of a person with narcolepsy, and you’ve got yourself a tired person.

So words fail me on how to properly say thank you to all the Moms out there, and all the women and men who serve in some mom capacity.

The best I can do is represent my feelings in these cards I made this morning.

Celebrating Mother's Day 2020 5

I realized last week I haven’t done any just-for-fun creative endeavors since the pandemic started. Since I was too tired to write this morning, I got out my art supplies and set to work making some cards.*

If you can believe it, I painted those cards myself using a gel plate painting technique under the instruction of Norfolk artist Tom Hlas. Tom gave a gel plate painting workshop a few months ago (feels like years ago), and I ended up loving it! I also ended up with multiple gel plate paintings left over to use as I so desire for future projects.

The hearts on these cards aren’t perfect. They’re lopsided and uneven. They’re splattered, messy swirls of color that shine in some areas and fade in others. Yet, they are beautiful in their imperfections (at least I think so) and the whole of each card is greater than the sum of its parts.

Which I think pretty much sums up the way we love each other in any relationship that we have, including the relationships we have with our moms and mom-like figures.

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!

*Shout out to Norfolk artist Leslie Watkins! Without her support, not only would I NOT have art supplies, I wouldn’t even know how to begin being creative with visual arts. You can watch her teach me how to make a card here.