Memorial Day in Babylon

 It is fitting that one of the homilies in the book In The Shadow of Babylon addresses, from an ancient perspective, what we call Memorial Day. After a brief but violent battle at the Gleb Spring, Ayuba - the young boy whose life is the core of the book - has just witnessed the sacrifices necessary for good to defeat evil. As he leaves the remote blood soaked oasis where many died he considers what he has learned: 

Exhausted, our small caravan plodded away from the sadness of the Gleb. Watching Father’s broad back as he dozed on the lead camel, I realized that if not for people like him, who were willing to risk their lives to ensure peace, the world I had so recently discovered outside the Beyond would not exist. I wondered how many men perished unheralded in the empty places of the earth defending the rights of people they’d never met. How many stone graves roasted in the desert sand, unremembered and unhonored?As the sky began to lighten, I vowed from that moment on to begin each day singing a song of tribute in my heart to the lonely graves of fallen heroes.

The freedoms we cherish do not come from politicians but from those who made the ultimate sacrifice ... that's what memorial days should be about.