What does Memorial Day mean to you?

As Memorial Day comes this year it had me thinking about the meaning of the holiday. In doing research on Memorial Day I found that it was originally known as Decoration Day and there are a lot of questions about its origin. You can read more here at Wikipedia. The federal holiday came to officially commemorate the men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces who have died defending our country in 1968 when Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill moving the traditional Memorial Day holiday from May 30th to the last Monday of May in order to create a three-day weekend.

Communities around the nation will host parades, commemorations and other events to remember the veterans who died in service to our country. Many people will visit cemeteries to remember their friends and family who died serving the nation. However, it seems that fewer people observe Memorial Day today than in previous decades.

A host of other things have come to be associated with Memorial Day: a three-day weekend, the start of the summer, mattress sales, family picnics, the end (or almost) end of the school year and for many, the Indianapolis 500.

While I must admit that I have never been a big racing fan, I am a bit more intrigued by it thanks to the animated classic movie Cars. As the Indianapolis 500 celebrated it’s 100th annual race this year, to an amatuer racing observer like me, it almost seemed like Lightning McQueen, the star of Cars, had come to life at the Brickyard in Indianapolis. You can read the details here. The story in short is a rookie Indy race car driver who was set to easily win the race, like Lightning McQueen, when he made a critical mistake just seconds before the finish line that crippled his car and cost him the race. His car literally bounced off the wall and slid across the finish line in second place.

My questions for you this week:

• What does Memorial Day mean to you?
• What are the things that you’re racing toward and how are you planning on finishing them up?