I am getting annoyed with the word "forever". It is being overused to the point of being meaningless.
When someone dies, odds are that the family will put that word in the obituary. "We'll remember Oscar forever." Since the survivors won't live forever, they can't possibly remember someone else forever. Go to any cemetery on Memorial Day and look at the plots that have abandoned. In one or two generations, the deceased are forgotten. There's no "forever" there.
When we were checking out at our supermarket this evening, I noticed a celebrity magazine. A headline proclaimed that something would happen at some reality television show that would be so shocking that we would remember it forever. I seriously doubt that.
We Americans have abysmal memories. A recent survey asked voters who killed Osama Bin Laden. Eight percent thought it was Mitt Romney. Seriously? If the electorate can't accurately remember something that took place a year ago, how can they remember anything "forever"?
What happened on December 7, 1941? Who remembers that Day of Infamy? Why do we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11...if we celebrate it at all? When I was a child we celebrated a moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. on that day, but I doubt schools do that any more.
September 11, 2001, which we were told we would remember forever, has smaller and smaller memorial services as the years go on. Instead of 9-11, we are now supposed to call it Patriots Day, but we don't get the day off and in time I expect our memories will wear thin.
Today, we got the sales flyer for Don's Quality Market with the Patriots Day sale. Perhaps "forever" in America has more to do with merchandising than anything else.
When someone dies, odds are that the family will put that word in the obituary. "We'll remember Oscar forever." Since the survivors won't live forever, they can't possibly remember someone else forever. Go to any cemetery on Memorial Day and look at the plots that have abandoned. In one or two generations, the deceased are forgotten. There's no "forever" there.
When we were checking out at our supermarket this evening, I noticed a celebrity magazine. A headline proclaimed that something would happen at some reality television show that would be so shocking that we would remember it forever. I seriously doubt that.
We Americans have abysmal memories. A recent survey asked voters who killed Osama Bin Laden. Eight percent thought it was Mitt Romney. Seriously? If the electorate can't accurately remember something that took place a year ago, how can they remember anything "forever"?
What happened on December 7, 1941? Who remembers that Day of Infamy? Why do we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11...if we celebrate it at all? When I was a child we celebrated a moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. on that day, but I doubt schools do that any more.
September 11, 2001, which we were told we would remember forever, has smaller and smaller memorial services as the years go on. Instead of 9-11, we are now supposed to call it Patriots Day, but we don't get the day off and in time I expect our memories will wear thin.
Today, we got the sales flyer for Don's Quality Market with the Patriots Day sale. Perhaps "forever" in America has more to do with merchandising than anything else.
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