Reflections on Memorial Day
Quick answer: What is the meaning of Memorial Day?
John writes that Memorial Day exposes the difference between memory and abstraction. It honors the dead first, and then the transfer they leave: citizenship as work someone must do. The fallen didn't think the country was perfect, but believed it worth carrying forward. They ask the living: will you carry it now?
The rain started before sunrise at Arlington, the kind that hangs in the trees and darkens the marble. By eight, families moved through with folding chairs and grocery-store flowers. A boy in a clip-on tie dragged his fingers across the stones while his grandfather gently corrected him. At the Tomb of the Unknowns, the rifle was inspected again, because details matter more here, not less. Memorial Day, John writes, exposes the difference between memory and abstraction. Abstraction turns war into maps and speeches. Memory keeps it physical: wet grass on polished shoes, a ring folded into a widow's palm. His generation grew up around First and Second World War veterans, coaches, teachers, and neighbors who rarely spoke of it and distrusted the word hero. Today we narrate burdens before we carry them. But most of the country holding together still happens out of sight. The dead didn't think the country was perfect. They thought it worth carrying forward. Will you carry it now?
Why it matters for leaders: Citizenship is work someone has to do; if you wait for somebody else, it simply doesn't get done.
Q: What did the WWI and WWII veterans John grew up around have in common?
A: They rarely spoke about the war, distrusted the word hero, and seemed ordinary while carrying things no one could see.
Q: Who carries the country today, in John's view?
A: Families absorbing loss, teachers keeping standards, honest small business owners, nurses on overnight shifts, and veterans mentoring younger men, mostly unseen.
Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/reflections-on-memorial-day
By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation