Why We Remember.

Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.  Rosa Parks

            Why we remember.  The Today show was full of people remembering.  They were remembering 9/11, the Holocaust, and slavery.  Lonnie Bunch was interviewed about the upcoming opening of the National African American Museum.  During the interview he said: "We try to find the tension between the moments that will make you ponder the pain of slavery and segregation and the moments where you find the joy in the resiliency of the community."  Memories-- we may run from them dwell too long in them or carry the sum of them into our future.

            When our daughter and her two friends were young they were constantly making memories.  This was before cell phones, Facebook, and Snapchat made this task a bit easier. Whether they were getting ready for a dance or peeling potatoes I would hear them call; "Take a picture, we are making memories!"  Even as young teens they knew they might want to hang on to this time together even if it were only in a photo. 

Facebook understands this desire to look back; "This day three years ago you posted this--!"  Of course not all memories are ones we wish to share again; occasionally the memory pops up that leaves you wondering about the “hows”and “whys” of life.

            From the drawings in caves to the social media of today, people have been preserving memories.  Diaries and blogs, letters stored in attics, antique stores and scrap booking are all trying to hold on to something, to say something to the "someone one day" who might look at what we saw and what we had to say.  We search old family photos of people we never new looking for some resemblance, some likeness to connect us to the past.

            Religion is a way we connect ourselves to the past while moving toward the future.  We tell stories of perseverance, courage and survival.  People gather and they pray familiar prayers, they sing familiar songs, they eat and they practice their faith that connects them to those who have gone before them.  Others celebrate through traditions of hunting, climbing mountains, art, music, fishing and food!

            On a PBS special on Hasidic Judaism, a grandfather told his grandson; "I survived so that you might live.  And there you have it--- why do we remember--so that life might go on.

"'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Acts:2:17

            So take pictures, sew quilts, knit, sing, paint, build and cook your todays into tomorrows!

            Sunday will be 15 years since 9/11; some of us will be lighting candles by the water in Hallowell, where ever you are ---remember.