Memorial Day: "The Better Angels of Our Nature"

Hi guys,

It is late morning on Memorial Day in our nation's capital. Everything is hushed, although the city is finally coming to life. Once again I awoke at dawn today. I was able to have some hours of refreshing sleep after some hours at church and then a luncheon out with some parishioners that left me overstimulated and keyed up. But fortunately I was able to fall fast asleep due to my body's exhaustion in spite of the excitement yesterday. A great deal of this stimulation and excitement silenced my blogging muse. Fortunately that is awakening right now. I hope to have a leisurely masturbation session among other things later today to prepare myself for another work week.

Memorial Day as observed here in the USA has its origins in community observances of fallen soldiers after the American Civil War. It gradually became a national holiday here over the years as more wars were fought. It is proper that we honor their memory in their paying the ultimate sacrifice in service of their country.

President Abraham Lincoln, like so many other people, foresaw the coming of the Civil War. At the end of his First Inaugural Address, he said in his appeal to both North and South:

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

The expression, "the better angels of our nature," is so apropos to this holiday and presently world with its wars and problems facing the well-being of human civilization and Planet Earth. May the "better angels of our nature" make us more loving and compassionate humans as we endeavor to care for Mother Earth.

Take care.