This morning as I was taking my daily walk I encountered a young woman getting ready to run. She wished me "Happy Memorial Day" and then laughed, as if to acknowledge the irony of the "happy" part of her greeting. "And to you," I said. "Let's keep them in our hearts." She nodded and we went on with our exercise.
Yesterday I talked with my husband about family members who had served in the military. Our fathers, both, one in the navy and one in the air force. Uncles, great uncles, some for one tour, some career officers. And then there were the ones the family barely mentioned, or didn't talk about at all--the one who is buried at Shiloh, a foot soldier in the confederate army; the confederate colonel. As we revisit the lasting damage of that civil war, and think about our current and possibly fatal disagreements about how to proceed, my focus is on those of us looking for a way forward to heal together rather than further divide.
