Memorial Day

It's the Memorial Day weekend.  My views on the holiday have changed radically over the years.  As a youngster it simply meant a long weekend home from school and the opening of the public pools.  Wonderful enough in elementary school.  As I hit my late teenage and early adult years I thought enough to be grateful to those who gave their lives in service to this country.  As I've gotten older still, married, progressed in my career and all that, I am humbled by the service rendered by even those furthest from combat, let alone those who face it.  I've come to an understanding that the sacrifice of time, of sweat, of labor, of effort, of family, of stability, is as noble as sacrifice of blood.  Nigh as wrenching as the sacrifice of life.

So...Thank you to those who serve.  To those who have borne the battle, to those wounded, to those who haven't seen their family in years or months or days, to those who serve at home knowing that they may well be called to the front, to those familes who love and support a service man or woman, Thank you.

Thank you to my friends David and Peter, to Ernie, to my Uncle Bill, to Jim, to my 4th cousin 4 times removed Union Veteran (captured by Mosby and sent to Andersonville)(and lived to write about it) R.K. Sneden, and to my Burleson cousin who, my Grandmother told me, was the first person to sing "Marching Though Georgia" to Sherman's Army of the Tennesee.  Thank you to all those I will never know.

I don't have an American flag graphic or anything fancy like that.  I do, however, have a Maine Coon Cat.  The original American Breed.  She thanks you, too.

 
I do, indeed.

Comments

[Scooby, Shaggy & Scout]

She says:
"Yeah, thanks. Cheese please."
You can't say no to those eyes!

[Fiona]

Poetic indeed, my friend.

Thank you for sharing!