Memorial Day 2020 - A Plea to Remember.

Tomorrow will be a Memorial Day worth remembering. Of course, its core meaning – to remember and honor those we have lost in the service of this nation – remains paramount. I have thought over the years that the day’s essence has become blurred as the day has become one of family picnics and barbecues. I confess that I have not sufficiently paused and meditated on the day's meaning in year's past as I think I should have. I placed a small American flag on our front lawn today, the smallest of gestures to honor a very solemn remembrance.

But this Memorial Day is different. To those of us like me who have never served, this may feel as close to a war atmosphere that we will hopefully ever know. Lockdown. Shelter in place. Commerce shuttered. Empty streets and concert halls. Fear. Desperation. Hope. Propaganda. Supply chain disruption. Heroes. Victims. Agony and death.

We are battling an invisible and cunning enemy who knows no borders. Thusfar, he is bulletproof. Yes, we are winning, but it has a been a tortured grind leaving a staggering wake of destruction. We are not even sure what winning will look like. We will get to the other side, holding a collective fantasy that life as we knew it will await us. But that destination is yet unseen and unknown.

Let’s remember those we have lost in the current war, and the loved ones who still grieve, and the ordinary folks who became extraordinary heroes as they ran straight into the fire.

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