I am sitting on my deck waiting for our guests to arrive.  We have fun plans for the kids, good food, drink, and friends old and new coming.  I was making potato salad this morning and I could not stop thinking about my Dad. I had memories of a Memorial Day when I was a kid.  We sat together in the kitchen staring at the thickest fog I had ever seen.  The weather was going to be glum and cold all day, I was so dissapointed because we were supposed to go to a pool party.  I remember my Dad saying, Cheer up kid.  Lets go to a matinee movie.

My Dad hated the movies.  He was a veteran of WWII and the loud artillery damaged his hearing.  From the time my Dad was forty, they year I was born, he was having hearing issues.  By his later years he wore hearing aids.  Talking to my Dad was a frustrating experience that did not improve with hearing aids.  Till the day he died he was sharp as a tack but couldn’t hear anything.  My Dad gave his hearing to his country.  So many more gave their lives.  What about the kids who didn’t have a Dad to take them to a movie he couldn’t hear?

I do not believe that war solves anything.  But I grew up during the end of the Vietnam War and no one should be treated the way those vets were.  War is the ugliest thing this planet has to offer. Thank you to the people who fought the wars valiantly, remembering those who passed, and here’s to leaders who know how to make better decisions before coming to blows.