On this solemn Day we remember. There are those who give and those who have given all. We remember and grieve again for loved ones, neighbors, friends; all who have served and are a part of the continual effort to maintain and sustain this Great Land of ours with our freedoms and our obligations. May God bless us all as we keep our traditions, integrity, character, and strength to continue the effort and be deserving of those who have ‘held the line’ down through the decades of our history and lives. God please bless America!
Memorial Day always draws me into history, America’s history in particular. George Washington, father or our nation; John Adams, relentless champion and negotiator or our resolve as a nation; and all the members of the Constitution! The Revolutionary War to secure our Independence. Our congressional battles to form and solidify our form of government and our International posture and position as a major and fundamentally focused force to maintain global relations and actions. In math we learn that the power of 1 is 1, multiply 1 by 1 as many times as possible and it is still 1. However in life the power of 1 is infinity!
Leadership is almost always 1 person, the effects and the impact of that 1 persons actions always has far reaching effects and in some cases that effect continues to last and who knows how long infinity is that one person’s leadership will continue to influence behavior and action? George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Plutarch, Greek and Hebrew writers and philosophers, and I regret my shallow basis for remembering History in a better way?
My ‘take-away’ on this Memorial Day is the remembrance of the decades of struggle, the volunteers for duty, the sorrow of lost loved ones and good neighbors, the mental effect of these struggles on the participants–this probably the most profound to me as a youngster observing and interacting with young returnees from the Korean Conflict, my most sad memories of lost emphatic and robust activity to staid and steady survival. Still all my friends ‘pressed on’ and contributed to our communities and forward looking activities.
2023 is a year that still accentuates a real lack of leadership for peace and stability in our global activities; perhaps peace is always a temporary position and mankind will always press for more than enough (definable?) and covet what ‘they’ have and ‘we’ want it. Perhaps if we can remember everyone and every entity has a name and we use those names instead of ‘they’, ‘them’, and ‘we’ a possibility of ‘together’ can be improved? Continual improvement as a goal is positive and yet is comprehended too often as criticism expectation of ‘better’. Ah, but I digress. Memorial Day! May we always remember and honor the efforts of service members.