From Walt Whitman, Song of Myself:

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

As a child, on Memorial Day, we went to Bedford, Indiana and laid flowers on family graves.  Flags flew on the graves of the veterans, placed there by my uncle who fought in WWII.  His father fought in WWI.  My father was a pilot of a B-17 shot down in WWII.  Lives, memories, honoring in a desire for no more wars, for coming together to solve and honor the complexity each of us is, in a world complex, and in that complexity, whole.

Recognizing the multitudes of which I consist, I hope on this Memorial Day we can come to peace in ourselves and the world.  It’s a time to honor what’s come before as we use it as a launching pad to honor the dead by living in peace.