today is for memory and …

Memorial
I have been wearing a number 40 red football jersey all weekend with someone’s name on it who I’ve never met and wasn’t a fan of while he played, but am remembering this weekend. Who are you remembering?

Some years ago I saw an article about the Pat Tillman Foundation, which mentioned that if I ordered a jersey through them the (some?) proceeds would go to the foundation. I bought four, and sent one to my brothers and a sister. My wife (not a football fan) thinks wearing the jersey all weekend is both obscure and over-kill, and she is amazed each year how many people ‘get it’ without having to be told. For those of you closer to my wife’s level of ‘knowledge’, check out the Wiki on Tillman for the outline of the story.

Every American service member who has died in service is a tragedy for his or her family and for a group of friends or others who knew her or him; the death is also always a symbol because of the national connection. In Tillman’s case, the symbolism is terribly layered and complex, and is relevant to many more people than is ‘typical’. That doesn’t make him any more or less special than anyone else, but more powerful. His family reacted to their terrible loss in many admirable ways, the Foundation being only a part of that reaction. (Check out this Redbook profile of Tillman’s wife from December 2009.)

My grandfather came home safely from France in 1919, and my dad from Germany in 1946. I don’t have any relatives or close friends who failed to come home from Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq. I am going to spend some time today thinking about Pat Tillman specifically, and the people like him who died ‘for me’, as well as about my granddad and father and people like them, who made it home.

Who are you remembering?

© Sandy Mattingly 2010