35. In Remembrance

Elephants have been known to stand for days over their dead, sometimes covering them with leaves and branches. Humans have buried devotional objects with their loved ones who have crossed the threshold of death. Both species are capable of tears. Capable of remembrance.

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Archeology celebrates when it finds the remains of tools dating back to even prehistory and the stone age. This obviously reveals the seeds of primal technology and what can be done when the hands are freed from a vertical earthbound gravity. They can now engage in the horizontal world of culture and society.

Even more amazing is when burial sites are discovered that demonstrate something more important than what happens between the hands. What is happening between the ears? What significance is embedded in a practice that is not based on survival, but on devotion . . . to those immediately around you? Above you? Below you?

Not all religions emphasize an afterlife. Some solely believe that remembrance of the dead, even naming newborn progeny after the deceased, carries the departed’s spirit into continued life. Regardless of religious belief, the act of “remembrance” is a shared thread throughout humanity and overlaps into parts of the animal kingdom. Re-membering, piecing together members or experiences of one’s life, even when they are not perceived by the physical senses, is an activity that extends beyond a materialistic view of existence.

A National Day of Remembrance, a Memorial Day for those "who gave all," goes even further. It honors those who have fallen defending our freedom, those who have given their life for principles that are equally not visible, not tangible, but ideas that have matured into ideals. These values also can’t be grasped with the hands like inventive tools, but only with the heart and mind as principles to live for. Or die for.

In practicing ‘remembrance,’ you are an active member of a species that connects the invisible, re-members past experiences, and engages in an activity that is not only fully human, but crosses the threshold of senses to something beyond.