Pearl Harbor Day

Pearl Harbor Day
(by R.P.Edwards)

Busy, busy
Fleeting time
Pause for little
Seeking…mine
Rushing past
Memorial threads
Life for living
Forget…the dead
But now and then
From trials deep
From valleys low
With risings…steep
With easing pain
I see the worth
Of values born…
Not of this earth
And so a moment
On this day
Remembering heroes
Their blood…the pay
That bought my leisure
My selfish view
A simple pause for thanks
…to you.

“Red sky at night, the sailor’s delight,” so goes the ancient adage.  I thought about it on my mission last night at dusk which required a buggy ride (in one of our little steel mill transports) and an outside jaunt into the cold December elements.  There, as I tooled along, to the west, were clouds that had the appearance of cotton that had been subject to the cat’s merciless teasing; and they were red.  Well, even though I spent some time sailing the briny deep (decades ago), the saying never made sense.  However, one minute on Wikipedia cleared it up.  It all has to do with predictable weather patterns and the rays of the sun as they travel through the atmosphere at dawn…and dusk.  The “red skies” can indeed be a precursor…to good, or ill.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day.  Sixty-eight years ago the United States was plunged into a World War and the generation of our parents and grandparents was asked, and accepted, the task of sowing their blood that the hope of freedom…might bloom.  And, for us, their progeny…it certainly has.  However, it appears that it is again morning…and the sky is red.  We can try and ignore it; say it’s not coming; but the front is moving steadily towards us.  I hope a little of our ancestor’s “stuff” has been passed on.  We’ll see.  But on this day…we remember them…and say, “Thanks.”

That’s what I think.  How about you? Click comments below…and say.