Memorial Day does make us think

The big world news on this Memorial Day is the powerful underground nuclear bomb test in North Korea. Couple that capability with their increasingly sophisticated delivery rockets and, voila, another nation with the ability to wipe out millions of people with the flick of a switch.

Just how resilient is our planet? How much can it take? Are we beyond the tipping point? Not as long, I guess, as we are able to find seeds thousands of years old in pyramids – seeds that once placed in soil and moisture kick back into action and bring forth life. Nature, of course, ultimately doesn’t care. It just keeps doing its thing. But, in the most pessimistic of moments, do we think it’s possible to extinguish the last spark of life needed to start the ball rolling?

The answer of course is no. So far our reach doesn’t extend that far into the universe. And we didn’t provide the first spark of life in the first place. So, on this Memorial Day, and on the ones behind us and those before us, we get a chance once again to thank those who gave their lives in fights for freedom and to pledge ourselves to supporting efforts and wise decision-making to help prevent sending lives into battle.

It all comes down to love and passion for the right things. That’s why Grace Tindle and her friends at the American Legion post in Lewes for years rimmed the front edge of Bethel cemetery on Savannah Road with small American flags for Memorial Day. “Let’s not forget,” say the flags. That’s what they really stand for. Let’s preserve our ideals so that those who died won’t have done so in vain. Let’s use our freedom to really work to make this world a better place for us and those who come after us. Praise the Lord who makes the apples and enlightened thinking and those amazing little seeds that germinate after thousands of years. Praise Grace Tindle and her veteran husband Alfred and all of them who said we will not forget. Praise the Lord, halleluiah, amen!

Praise Memorial Day and the First Amendment that they have fought for that let’s us say what we want and publish what we want – responsibly – and worship as we want and gives us the freedom to try do dig through it all and make sense of it all so we can set a course through all the storms and come out into a better world on the other side.