Memorial Day Notes...

I hope that all of you enjoyed a long weekend. I certainly did.

While enjoying a trail run through the woods near my house yesterday,
I got to thinking....

I took time to absorb the reason for why I (and many others) had this
particular day off.

It's a single day where can to take time, be it a minute or the whole
day (although I certainly don't believe that we need to limit it to
that one single day)
to think about and hopefully honor those people who have given their
lives so that we can do whatever we chose to do yesterday.

Hopefully you got to spend time with family, loved ones and friends.
You got to listen to music, eat good food, talk about anything you
chose to discuss or just sat and watched children play.
Even if you ended up working, I hope that somewhere you still
realized that to do whatever you did, that it was a pretty good deal.
We know life from a particularly priveliged perspective. (That's my
opinion anyway - as is this whole note.)

That fact that we have the freedom to relax, rest, work or whatever
was on our schedule is really something to be thankful for. In our
country, we have so many choices and we have
so much leeway to do whatever we want is truly amazing. It is so
amazing that it is easily overlooked. But not overlooking the
obvious, is a great exercise. It requires one to step back, take a
moment,
analyze the situation and then realize the given fact.

In the US we have a system and people who devote themselves to
securing our existence in the world. That system and those people
who enable us to dream up and then actually pursue those
opportunities deserve
honor and recognition.

What I think is also important is that for every memorial, with its
list of countless names of those who sacrificed their lives, there
are the family, loved ones, friends and neighbors who miss
their soldier on that day and every day. These folks all push on
through live having to replace the physical presence and interaction
only with memories.

I believe that we owe it to our fallen soldiers to remember them and
enjoy the day and realize how good we have it.

Be well all and always be thankful for what you have!

Coach Dave