Remember, Remember The 5th Of November

The Power and Urgency of Remembering

Since the dawn of time, mankind has had celebrations and remembrances. Wild orgies and moon dances. Somber vigils. Celebrations of lights and sounds.

In the Jewish faith, one of the first things that God commanded the Israelites to do after bringing them out of slavery in Egypt and through the desert was - REMEMBER. He commanded them to instill significant and regular celebrations, remembrances, and events into the DNA of their fledgling new culture including:

• Passover

• Feast of Unleavened Bread

• Pentecost

• First Fruits

• Day of Atonement

These were commandments, not suggestions.

Here in the US, we have things like Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving, and worldwide we celebrate wedding anniversaries, Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, New Year’s Day, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanza, etc.

Humans are obligated to remember through celebrations and anniversaries, because - well - how quickly we forget. It’s VITAL to helping us both remember the past and reflect on who we are now and into the future. Remembrances SHOULD give us perspective.

Besides summer, my absolute favorite time of the year is when that calendar rolls over into October. It’s a three month onslaught of celebrations, remembrance, feasting, gathering, and (mostly) fun for me. I’m like - well - a kid a Christmas.

This October, I spent far too much time and money putting together a Halloween party, complete with an original scavenger hunt/escape room around my house and yard (message me, I’ll give you the blueprint and ideas to do your own).

I made hard cider, fondue, my teenager and his friends bobbed for apples, we played creepy music (join my Spotify playlist), everyone had costumes, and 25 or so wonderful humans celebrated life together.

My Shed of Butchery

Me as “The Broken Man” - an original creation

The Graveyard Where Death Lurks

As I take down Halloween decorations, I’m already smelling roasting turkey, thinking about good winter beer, imagining being nestled under a blanket on the couch with my family nearby, watching parades and football, and catching up with family and friends.

But the pinnacle of the year for me is Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Day, but for my wife and I, Christmas Eve is the moment where the figurative table is set. It’s the most quiet, most reverent, most peaceful time she and I have each year as we drink wine, look at the house all decorated, and the Christmas tree all lit up with a bounty of gifts beneath. We laugh, we reflect, we mourn, and we just…pause. We let peace and gratitude really surround us and imbibe us, and we truly embrace what Christmas means to us - the birth of our Savior and the hope that truth, peace, and joy finally somehow truly permeate our world for good.

The past few Christmas Eves have been unique. I’ve seriously contemplated whether I would be having these moments in the near future. Covid mandates, authoritarian dictats, the madness of the world, the true prospect of living as an outlaw or as one of the “subjugated” no longer allowed to buy what I want and live how I want certainly gave me grave pause. It still does. Every DAMN DAY.

In the now classic cult film “V for Vendetta”, the main character - V - realizes that his people have forgotten what it means to live freely. A fascistic government has taken totalitarian control of Great Britain, and his mission and duty is to help them remember what it was like to live as free people. To wake them from their slumber. To REMEMBER.

Here in real life, in 2022, we are faced with the same challenges and compulsions that have faced humanity since the dawn of time.

We face entire societies that have simply forgotten everything that makes us human. We have just spent the past 32+ months watching our neighbors, our families, our institutions - and frankly - reality itself, be transformed into a true dystopia.

I repeat - dystopia isn’t a far off or vague idea. We are LIVING in a dystopia once only imaginable from some fantastic science-fiction writer’s masterful brain.

I don’t know if you caught it in that clip from V For Vendetta, but shortly into it, when the music starts playing, there’s a big sign in the street with the heading “Government CURFEW”. Any bells ringing (besides the ones in this video)?

LOCKDOWN, anyone?

RIGHT NOW, we are being asked to just FORGET. Ooopsie, we made a mistake because WE DIDN’T KNOW ANY BETTER BACK IN 2020. I’m not going to rehash anything that’s already been done better than what I could offer, so here’s Guttermouth’s recent fantastic post. Please read this.

Joining the Dogpile

Thanks Emily Oster, but I call bullshit on your amnesty.

That’s EXACTLY what leads to mor dystopia, you pretentious, self-preserving, tone deaf, completely zero self-aware…alright, I’m stopping myself from more adjectives and verbs and nouns.

Likewise Bad Cat had another post showing a large swath of our population would love to see those who haven’t bought into the dystopia wish to be jailed, disappeared, and stripped of rights.

kitten corner: the price of forgiveness

Dystopia is real, and if certain elements have their way, they would have it become permanent reality.

Bullshit.

It’s now more critical than ever for the sober, realistic, and independent portions of our societies to REMEMBER. INTO PERPETUITY.

The PTB BANK on us just going back to sleep. Of rolling over. Of staying quiet.

The Myth of Borders and the Reality of Fences

What we need to do with more fervor than ever is reject that. It’s not easy. It’s GOT to become a discipline that we adopt, much like eating right every meal, getting regular exercise, sleeping well, being personally and financially responsible, raising our kids well, etc.

Our human nature is to forget. Time passes. Feelings fade. We become numb to the sharp edges that once pricked us. It’s just the way our brains and bodies are wired.

We must remember. We must remember:

• March 16th, 2020

• Christy, Matt, and the millions of people like them who’s lives were/are forever altered

• Lockdowns

• Destroyed businesses and life savings

• Vaccine mandates

• The scorn, shame, ridicule, and death wishes from the hordes of Dystopians

• The destruction and failure of institutions set up to protect the citizens

• Doctors who were just “following the science”

• The colleges and universities that made your kids get jabbed for the “privilege” of “higher learning”

• The employers that fired you or let you walk

• The school boards that shut your kids out of school

• The media and politicians that mocked you

• The friends and family who shunned you, who STILL shun you

• The Hydra, who has poisoned every well and invested their entire lives into subjugating you and your kids

• The unelected bureaucrats who forced their pathetic power trips into the fabric of your reality

• Playgrounds, beaches, and parks locked

• The museums, concerts, plays, and restaurants you were forbidden to enter

• The children’s high school plays, graduations, and sporting events you weren’t allowed to attend or that never were

• Real doctors being stripped of their medical licenses for speaking out

• Censorship

• Your parents dying alone in a hospital or nursing home

• Masks on 2 year olds

• Please add to this list in the comments

No Emily, blue checks, politicos, “journalists”, and “experts”, we aren’t going to just forget.

We will remember, remember, remember. Be relentless in your remembrance. Encourage others to do the same. As this house of cards continues to collapse, you will have more and more opportunities to introduce more and more people to remembrance. People need to be reminded of reality as they shake the dystopia from their eyes - FINALLY - and you are perfectly positioned to be there for them.

Maybe we need a national holiday to reinforce this.

Remember, remember, the 16th of March.

It doesn’t have the same ring, but I stand by my point.

What do YOU think, citizen? Please help us ALL remember by sharing this if you so choose.