I hope you all have a good Memorial Day weekend. This is a day that started as a commemoration to honor those who died in battle for their country. It expanded, at least in part of the country such as the Oklahoma where I grew up, into a “decoration day” to remember all of those in one’s family who have died and to put flowers on their graves. Now, since schools adjourn around this time, it is mainly observed as the beginning of the summer, a time to cook out and get a start on summer vacations.

Again, we see a holiday becoming generalized past recognition of its original meaning. And yet, if we hold onto all of those meanings (sacrificial death for others, death of loved ones, rest from work), Memorial Day can be a distinctly Christian day, in which we soberly recognize death but with a foretaste of the eternal summer with our loved ones and the eternal vacation from our labors that await those who die in Christ.

My favorite scene in all of the Indiana Jones movies and the key to their true meaning, in my opinion, is in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The swashbuckling archaeologist is, remember, a college professor, and in that movie we see him in front of a classroom. He is droning on in his glasses and tweed suit, as the students in his class for the most part are dozing off or not paying attention. Then during his office hours he begins the process of saving the world.

This is academia, as I know from experience and vocation, a perfect encapsulation of us professors’ self-image. Yes, in our obsessive preoccupation with our fields we are boring and inconsequential. But when we do our RESEARCH we are exciting and world-changing!

I would love to see more of Indy’s day job in the movies. While he is flying on that DC-3 with the line on the map tracing his route to exotic climes, is he grading papers? Before taking off for the Temple of Doom, did he struggle to get his grades in? As he was trying to find the Holy Grail, did he have to interrupt his quest for committee meetings and to deal with student complaints? I know that he prevailed over Nazis, cultists, and Communists, but, given his retrograde attitudes and his politically-incorrect archaeological practice of plundering indigenous peoples of their culturally-significant artifacts, I’d like to see his battle with the college’s tenure committee.

All of his adventures would have had to take place, apart from a few sabbaticals, over summer vacation, that blissful time for academics that we are now entering.

I am greatly encouraged that John McCain has invited Bobby Jindal to his Memorial Day cookout and vice-presidential talent show.

The former Louisiana congressman and currently governor of that state has been hailed as among the best and the brightest of a new generation of conservative politicians. The son of immigrants from India, Jindal is a convert to Christianity (of the Roman Catholic variety) who describes himself as “100%” pro-life. Those in the know describe him as brilliant and effective. He is also a great campaigner, re-elected to Congress with 88% of the vote and taking the governorship away from the notorious Louisiana Democratic machine. Rush Limbaugh has gone so far as to hail him as “the next Ronald Reagan.”

If McCain were to pick Jindal, it would put another “person of color” on the ballot. The only strike against him would be his youth (he is only 36) and inexperience (he has only been governor for a few months, though he has served two terms in the House and has worked with other government agencies). Still, he is more experienced than Barack Obama!

This weekend is the Indianapolis 500. I once attended an auto race and enjoyed it tremendously, though I confess (and this is a blot on my country music credentials) to not following that particular sport in all of its no-doubt interesting varieties. But I remember as a child getting together with the whole Veith clan at the family farm in Tonkawa, huddling around a short wave radio to hear the broadcast of the Indianapolis 500. My father had a distant cousin, Bob Veith, who would be in that race, and we would always root for him. I was pleased to discover that, though, he never won that particular race, Bob nevertheless rates a Wikipedia article for his racing career: Go here.