MAY IS SO REMARKABLY DIFFERENT

May is traditionally considered the month-of-flowers following the month-of-showers. But really now, it's so much more. Isn't May more the month-of-memories? Mothers' Day...proms...graduations...all coming to an emotional crescendo with Memorial Day.

Each of these days is weighted with memories. Cherishable remembrances of the Mom that was somehow always there. The date that will always occupy a special place. The classmates who will always remain the emotional scenery to that once-in-a-lifetime day. And surely all the faceless ghosts you never knew whose deaths in strange lands helped make your Mays possible.

Which brings us to the question: So what should a person do with all these memories...?

Some can be quickly deleted. Re-living faults and failures is like re-arranging the skeletons in a tomb. There are better things to do. But wait...! this doesn't mean tombs don't have their place. From the very beginning, we have intuitively thought to keep holy that which has been lost or died. Even in America, the-land-of-the-free-and-home-of-the-perpetually-young, we aren't obliged to dismiss whatever is past.

However -- being a hard-nosed, pragmatic people -- perhaps yesterday's memories need to be defined and defended as having some no-nonsense, practical uses for today. Fair enough.

Imagine all the accumulated memories tucked (or lost) somewhere in your home (or heart). Old photos... saved petals...trinkets from that day...letters from that person... diplomas and certificates from that institution...now even videotapes and cellphone pictures. Why have you kept them so long? Maybe because you needed some pragmatic assurance that these sweet moments really did happen.

Sweet...? Yes, possibly their very sweetness is their value. Everyday life can be a bitter-tasting menu of little battles and large struggles. How sweet it is to occasionally add some sugar to the cup. To re-visit the good people and good times which can brighten even your darkest hours. To feel the energy of forgotten victories surge through your sagging soul.

This is why games have timeouts...days have evenings...winters have spring. Sugar is not something to over-dose on; and yet, there is something indispensable to what it brings to the meals. We don't remember days, we remember moments. And these moments are the diary and the literature of our life. He who fails to keep the pages fresh -- both as an individual and as part of the collective culture -- is risking the loss of one of the spices that help make life worth eating...