Memorial Day… I think a mostly misunderstood day; thank God for FB memes, Twitter wars and ugly politics to remind us the toll of conflict is the lives of our own. In the fields of Gettysburg, jungles of Vietnam, Normandy, or the sands of the Mid-East our brothers and sisters have died in uniform – a violent end to all they were and would have been – yet we casually mouth words like freedom and sacrifice, as if these could somehow capture the magnitude of their loss.

Many years ago, I wrote a piece on Memorial Day – quoting the likes of Oliver Wendell Holmes and General Douglas MacArthur; oh, it was lofty for sure with words like, courage, honor, duty, loyalty… and those men had no doubt earned the right to pen those words, but had I? I am not sure there is an adequate answer to that for what is the life of one man, a thousand men, a million men worth – does “duty, honor, country,” cover it? Is that the price of freedom, the price of furthering this idea we call democracy, the price of the perpetual struggle against “evil” and are a few penned words reverent enough?

I don’t have any real answers, it’s simply what we ask – demand of those that wear the uniform whether they volunteered, were conscripted or simply believed it was the best option in a world of limited opportunity. However, they arrived at the last moment of their existence it transcended race, ethnicity, gender, orientation and ideology – maybe that’s the real lesson – in spite of all the ways we choose to separate ourselves; those we have lost share a commonality that provides a glimpse of a more perfect Union we should all aspire to – remember to remember.