Beyond the Long Weekend: Returning to Work with Purpose

What to Remember When Returning to the Office After Memorial Day Weekend

Soldiers’ National Monument, Gettysburg National Military Park. Photo by Mary O’Neill. Image sourced from National Park Service. Used here under fair use for the purpose of education and political commentary.

Today, we find ourselves returned from holiday to our professional routines—jobs whose wages allow us to afford life in this nation. And still, how often is it the case that these very wages prove insufficient to afford this nation’s cost of living?

But, in a greater sense, how suddenly does each day expire—from yesterday to today—so that we forget the true cost by which living in our nation is purchased? For it is the honored dead who ultimately pay for the lives that we lead. It is these men—those born and raised, each under a different household—who died and fell so that we, the living, can enjoy the Liberty that our forefathers secured years ago. This price cannot be forgotten.

For there are few havens beyond our own where critic and advocate, patriot and the politically apathetic, can coexist and speak freely. This too cannot be lost by us. Nor can it be lost on us that, for democracies to function, the price has been, is being, and will be paid in blood. Justifying wars will be left to another. Perhaps this is why it has been said that the blood of soldiers is closer to God than the writings of the scholars and the prayers of the pious. Theirs is the ultimate sacrifice—one whose shadow we stand in today as we return to work.

From the birth of our nation, the brave dead have purchased for us Liberty, a treasure which succeeding generations have fought to preserve and increase. This gift, passed down between ages, still stands. Upon this truth we find structure, and wheresoever we find faith and reason to be lacking, let us be prepared to provide it with all things new.

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Have a great week everyone!

Your friend,

Thomas Mathew O’Brien

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