What DOES it mean to live in infamy?

Today, Dec. 7, 2018, marks the 77th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.

Named "Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day," this day honors the more than 2,400 citizens of the United States who were killed in the Japanese surprise attack on pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

My grandfather was a WWII veteran, a submariner, and my patriarchal hero. His son (and my favorite Uncle) decided after graduating from college in the early 1990s that Pearl Harbor Day would be a day of celebration where he and his best buddies would drop all that they were doing, no matter where they were, and come together for an all-day and well-into -the-night celebration of camaraderie and friendship.

"In a way, it's paying homage to the past, the good times, and that moment that it all felt like it might break apart," my Uncle Jack once said. "On Pearl Harbor Day, in a way, we celebrate our togetherness by respecting how far we have come."

My Uncle and his four closest college friends, sworn to the Pearl Harbor Day pact, have spent each Pearl Harbor together, eating drinking and for PG purposes, "being merry" for close to 30 years.

They live far and wide, and represent a diverse range of lifestyles. They haven't missed one Pearl Harbor Day yet. I don't suspect that they will.

They mean no disrespect to those that suffered losses, and I don't intend making a party out of someone's tragedy. They DO support honoring the freedom those brave soldiers in Pearl Harbor sacrificed their lives for that day.

There is a laundry list of national and local holidays soaked in vivid loving memories of friends and family, that began in loss and unfortunate tragedy. I'm suggesting that as a part of your process, we try to remember to come together through pain, and consider those toughest moments of uncertainty opportunities for growth.

What if each loss was celebrated and remembered for the positives that came from it? What if something that brought us pain, could be honored for sense of connection it enabled us to realize?

"This is a date that will live in infamy," then President Franklin D. Roosevelt said famously.

You're damn right it will. Get out there. It's Pearl Harbor Day, and you can.

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