Unity Church of Dallas - Rev. Condra's Message

Rev. Kurt Condra
Associate Minister

A Message from
Rev. Kurt Condra,
Associate Minister

Prayerful Remembering

For boys born after 1959 and before 1973, being drafted to serve in the Vietnam War seemed inevitable. We grew up in a time when Walter Cronkite and the CBS Evening News were the soundtrack for suppertime. While our pre-teen understanding of worldly affairs couldn’t possibly grasp the significance conveyed by the grainy black-and-white images flickering nightly on the screens of our console TVs, we did understand that news of war, uprising and assassination was not uncommon to daily life. And we knew that those events somehow affected everybody. Though still five years away from draft age, I remember feeling an odd mix of guilt and relief when conscription was discontinued in ’73.

That same ambivalent mix of feeling comes over me each year at Memorial Day. I know the intent is to honor the lives of those who have died to protect the freedoms we cherish. And I am truly deeply grateful for the sacrifices so many have made to ensure I continue to enjoy them. At the same time my most deeply held belief is that God is in every one of us. All life is precious. Soldiers on both sides of every conflict sacrifice. Friends and families of the fallen mourn no matter which side prevails.

We can only know God; we can only begin to express the vastness and power of our divinity by setting aside belief in separation from God and from one another. The cool part is, where Memorial Day is concerned, we’ve already done it. First called “Decoration Day” (graves were decorated with laurel wreaths), it began to honor soldiers who died during the Civil War. But due to lingering hostilities toward the Union Army, many Southern states refused to participate. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which in 1866 commemorated both Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery. (Memorial Day was adopted universally after World War I, when observances were expanded to include those who died in any war or military action.)

In a poem titled “The Blue and the Gray,” Francis Miles Finch describes a Memorial Day observance that captures the transformation beautifully:

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers,
Alike for the friend and the foe.

Like the citizens of Columbus, Mississippi, we can choose to know our Oneness. We can choose to know the sacredness of every life that’s touched by war, injustice and terror. In the collective observance of Memorial Day there is the possibility for healing. In our prayers lie the power to raise consciousness from fear to love, guilt to gratitude and ambivalence to hope. So in these next few days surrounding our national holiday, please join me in prayerfully remembering: “Enemies ally. Peace is real. Wars end. Love is eternal.”

Blessings.

Message Date: May 23, 2007

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