As it is Memorial day in the United States, I thought it could only be appropriate to write a story in the spirit of the day, in the same sphere as the thoughts of the people, who today remember the brave soldiers who died on the battlefield believing this Latin motto: “ Amor patriæ nostra lex” which in English translates as “The love of the land is our law” or “Patriotism is our law”.
Today, some went on a picnic, or were away with family camping over the long weekend.
The most conservatives went to national cemeteries and decorated tombs with flowers and american flags to pay tribute to the many lives to whom we owe countless lives.
Today was a day of remembrance. A day that brings back to our mind that there was once a man, aged 25, with a wife and a baby at home, who died fighting for a cause he deemed was greater than his life.
We can remember the man who just went through a divorce, and despite the heartache and the anxiety, he put his grief aside and placed his life on the line for a purpose greater than his pain.
We remember the woman who made dinner plans with her husband to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary but never had the chance to because she perished, standing for a purpose greater than her milestone.
We remember.
If you were, dear reader, to die today, what will you be remembered for? Will you be remembered as a man who died for his convictions? A man who died fighting his whole life for a purpose greater than himself? Will you be remembered for changing the world? Will you be remembered for serving or for being served?
One way or another, you will remembered, that’s a given.
What you will be remembered for is entirely up to you. You are, as you read these very lines, holding the pen that writes the story you are to be remembered for.
Each day of your life is but a blank page.
Every thought, every uttered or whispered word, every action or decision borrows from this pen, a little bit of ink, to scribe in the pages of time, a story written by you.
By the life that you live, each day, you are telling the world : This is what I want to be remembered for.
Socratus, Charles Darwin, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Hitler, Ghandi, Mussolini, Alexander the Great, Picasso, Michael Jackson, Henry Ford.
Behind each of these names, there is a story. A fraction of time frozen in books, articles, movies. A portion of time captured and passed from generations to generations, lives of man both evil and good.
They will always be remembered, and their story cannot be altered : yours can.
JP Notes 