mem-or-ial day | Memorial Day

[mem−or−ee−uhldey] -noun

1. The cost of freedom made visible.

2. A day set aside to remember those whose Blank Checks were paid in full.

3. The difference between supporting war… and honoring sacrifice.

There’s a strange thing that happens every year around Memorial Day.

Flags come out.

Stores run sales.

People gather.

Boats launch.

Coolers fill.

And somewhere in the middle of all that… the meaning can quietly drift.

Memorial Day is not Veterans Day.

Veterans Day honors those who served.

Memorial Day honors those who never made it home.

That distinction matters.

A Veteran is someone who wrote a Blank Check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to and including one’s life.

Memorial Day is for those whose checks were paid in full.

That doesn’t mean you have to support war to honor sacrifice.

Those are not the same thing.

You can disagree with politics.

Question leadership.

Hate conflict.

Pray for peace.

And still stand in complete gratitude for the young man or woman who climbed into uncertainty on behalf of someone they would never meet.

That matters too.

I think one of the hardest parts about freedom is that truly good freedom becomes invisible over time.

Most of us woke up this morning without fear of invasion.

Without fear of government collapse.

Without wondering if our city would still exist tonight.

That kind of normalcy is easy to mistake as automatic.

It isn’t.

Somewhere along the line, someone stood watch for it.

Someone carried it.

Someone never came home from it.

That’s what Memorial Day asks us to remember.

Not perfectly.

Not politically.

Just honestly.

For some families, this weekend isn’t a celebration.

It’s a photograph on a mantle.

A folded flag in a glass case.

An empty chair that never really stopped being occupied.

And yet… there’s something beautiful about a country willing to pause and remember.

To say:

Your life mattered.

Your sacrifice counted.

You are not forgotten.

I think that’s worth protecting too.

So this weekend, enjoy your family.

Enjoy the laughter.

Fly the flag.

Cook the food.

Live the life they no longer can.

Just don’t forget why you get to.

RIP Marc Lee, Chris Pike, Rob Guzzo, and so many more.

For all those who gave everything… thank you feels impossibly small, but it is offered with deep gratitude.

Have a grateful Memorial Day weekend.

Image courtesy of Chris R. Mannerino