We did not really do anything to formally celebrate Memorial Day.

The kids played in the pool. I cooked some hotdogs on the grill for lunch. My wife went to the walk-in clinic to have a deeply embedded splinter removed from her foot. We went to my mother-in-law's for dinner. The kids played in the pool some more.

I did pause often though to remember. To remember the courage and the honor and the sacrifice of all of those who made a day like today possible. I tried to convey some sense of this to the kids, but at 6 and 11 I'm not sure they grasped the significance. They are too young to understand that the whole world is not just like America. They understand nothing but the idea of living in freedom. Sometimes, I envy them that.

The day will come when they grasp idea of oppression, of totalitarianism. On that day they will understand what their father was talking about.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 03:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment