Friends,
I hope you had a wonderful weekend.
In the US, today is a national holiday known as Memorial Day.
It’s a day for marking the beginning of the summer, for enjoying time off work, for taking a special time to be with family, eat good food, and to remember the deaths of those we know and love who died in combat and military service.
I have a complicated relationship with this holiday. As the child of a career Army Officer, as a military academy graduate, and former Army Officer myself I have no shortage of friends, colleagues, and classmates to grieve on this day.
And as an Army Officer turned Pacifist, I grieve double for the totality of carnage, death, and destruction that all war has caused.
And so I want to officer 3 short reflections I carry with me through this holiday every year as I’ve learned to grieve, process, and grow.
1. Momento Mori.
This is a phrase made common by the Stoics. Roughly translated it means, “Remember, you die.”
I’ve seen far too many lives cut …
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