(S8) - PT 2 - Memorial Day

[ExemplaryChad]

Memorial Day in the Ishigawa household tends to be a more somber affair than it is elsewhere. It’s important to celebrate American troops who have died, but it’s also important to celebrate those who have served in other ways. I don’t mean veterans or laborers, as those have their own holidays as well. With my family, it’s hard to think about remembrance and service without thinking of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans who were put into internment camps during World War II. It was an awful, paranoid, racist policy, and it’s a blight on American history. Still, this country that I’m proud to have (partially) grown up in has come a long way since then. This is why, on Memorial Day, I have separate shrines (to use the term loosely) set up -- one for the Japanese and one for the Americans.

As a loose Taoist, I don’t use many formal prayers or have large, elaborate setups or anything like that. Rather, I simply light some incense, do some meditating, and try and connect with the sense of “oneness” that we all share. It sounds kind of hippy-ish, and I guess it is, but it’s what works best for me. It’s a pretty simple, solemn day.

Haruki Ishigawa

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