Pardon the Dust...
This weekend SixApart made several major upgrades to Typepad, the blogging service I use. I've noticed that comments aren't posting properly... posts aren't archiving properly. It's a holiday, and I don't want to spend it fixing code... so I'll just say this for now...
- If you can leave a comment, I can read it. It will be posted when I get this mess cleaned up.
- If you can't leave a comment for a recent post, you should be able to soon.
- What are you doing reading blogs? Go to a barbeque!
- Happy 4th of July.
- Think about someone you know in the service. Appreciate them. Think about someone you don't know in the service. Appreciate them too.
- If you really must read something today, I suggest the Memorial Day message delivered last year at Still Point. It begins with a passage from a young soldier's war journal:
June 7
If anybody finds this notebook, please send it to my father, Mr. James Collins, care of the Norfolk and Western Railway, Roanoke, Virginia.
I do not think I am going to make it through this fighting. It is too rough. When we came in I thought the whole world was falling apart. The sea was choppy and tossing everybody around, and some of the guys were throwing up. The noise was like the worst thunderstorm you had ever heard, but instead of being up in the sky it was all around you. It was more than all around, it was inside of us. Me, Bobby Joe, Alonzo, Mikey and Eddie Plummer were together in the assault boat. The boats formed a circle until they were ready to hit the beach. My mouth went dry. Bobby Joe patted my arm and I took his hand and shook it. His hand was soaking wet.
...From The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, Scholastic, Inc. p. 14
P'arang goes on to describe three characteristics (from a Buddhist perspective) that make up a noble American. After the dharma talk last year, we all received pins with three beads on them... one red, one white, and one blue. I still drive around with my pin on the dashboard of my car so I'll remember the message. Be responsible. Be humble. Be grateful. I don't know about you, but I think that simply taking these three characteristics on as a practice could change the world.
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