To honor - and to share

Friday night after dinner at Rudy's, Moose went with me and Shorty to Barnes and Noble where we met up with his mom and Rusty. On the way, he was telling me about how one of his classmates "offended" him. Evidently, that afternoon Father John told the kids that he had to officiate at a military funeral at 2:00 One of the other boys immediately asked who was going to take care of them. This offended our little patriot who thought that the dead hero and his family should have been thought of first and foremost.

This lead to a discussion of "frame of reference" and how everything you have been and done and heard and read affects what you think and how you look at things. We decided that obviously his frame of reference was decidedly military as well as service oriented. We discussed service to your country and service to others and how it was all a form of sharing. Moose told us how Father John had explained some things about military funerals including the fact that the flag was not buried with the fallen hero, but given to his/her loved ones.

My first husband, although he died as a result of a vehicle accident, had served in the Army. After the funeral, I was given the flag that had draped his coffin. My family, while patriotic, was not especially military and, to be honest, I really did not know what to do with the flag. I did not want to just shove it in a closet or in an attic and I did not have an appropriate place to hang it.

This bothered me for years.

Then my oldest daughter, the child of my dead husband, started kindergarten. It was a good school and she loved it. Come the fall, the kids learned about Veteran's Day and who veterans are and how they served. She learned that her daddy had been a veteran.

The flag that had covered her father's casket was donated to her school in his memory. It flew over her and her classmates for the rest of that year. I think it was a good use for the flag and a good way to honor her dad's service. So did Moose.