Day of the Dead

Perhaps I should have titled this post Dia de los Muertos so it would sound less like a horror movie.  Halloween (All Hallow's Eve), All Saints Day, Day of the Dead, All Souls Day...it's a special trio of days - a healthy mix of pagan and Christian - this year included the added treat of the Hunter's Moon just before.

I hope you're not expecting anything profound.  I am determined to resurrect the blog and forced myself to sit down this evening without anything in particular to say.

That's not completely true.  The rather nasty combination of Mother Nature and politics has given us much to write about, ad nauseum. However, I truly believe that vast majority of us have all made up our minds regarding the coming elections.  If you know me, you know my politics.  In most cases I believe I know yours.  I have been disappointed to learn about some dear friends of mine - their persuasions politically speaking leave me rather baffled.

One political party has very vocal members who are actively working to keep me and my kind second class citizens - one politician going so far as to suggest that folks like me should be rounded up and placed into camps until we die off.  This vocal minority scares me.  Therefore, when I learn that friends and family support this party, that they are willingly supporting a party that has a significant number of members who hate me for nothing more than falling in love with other guys...I am saddened.

Well, back to the day at hand... I posted last about the family gathering.  This was my dad's family.  I felt the presence of my grandparents - both long deceased.  There has been some unfortunate disagreements that have left a major rift between members of this branch of the family.  I don't want to go in specifics so if that doesn't seem a strong enough description for some, my apologies.  It was the first time that almost all of us were gathered and the grievances were set aside out of respect for the occasion.  I am certain that this pleased my grandparents who were there in spirit. Both sets of my grandparents put a very strong emphasis on family.  Perhaps we can build on that brief truce and begin mending fences.  I'll keep hoping and praying.

I was fortunate to know two of my great grandmothers briefly as a child.  These were my mom's two grandma's.  My mom tells the story of visiting one of them as she was dying in hospital.  She commented to my mom who was twenty-eight at the time on how fast life flew by.  Now my mom is approaching that same age as her dying grandmother.  I am almost as old as my oldest grandparent on the day I was born.  It really does fly by.

Perhaps why I like this triad of days.  It is set aside to remember those who have gone before us - family and friends.  I've only just really grasped that most of my grandparents' generation is gone.  My grandmother and her sister both hang on in their nineties.  My great aunt just lost her husband this past week.  I believe that one of their sisters-in-law is also still alive.  On my dad's side, I believe they are all gone now, except perhaps my grandfather's sister-in-law.  These were the "old" people of my youth at family gatherings and they are almost all gone.  I remember them all on this day.

Peace.