Space Between What Is and What Should Be

The sub-title of this blog is, "The space between what is and what should be." Here is an example:
Arlington National Cemetery.
       We visited Arlington this week while attending the retirement ceremony and celebration of our friend Jim (well done, Jim - here's to the next 24 years!).
       There are graves of soldiers for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see at points. Arlington is a dignified, honorable place, "hallowed ground" Lincoln would have called it.
       We have to remember that it should not have to be this way - warfare and resulting death of brave men and women. The military uses the phrase, "they gave the ultimate sacrifice." It is an appropriate phrase too. I use it.
       But I wish I did not have to.
       There are 27 funerals at Arlington Cemetery every day. The cemetery was founded at the height of the Civil War when President Lincoln confiscated Robert E. Lee's home in Arlington, Virginia and ordered the Union to create a cemetery for the dead from that bloodiest of wars.
       I both marvel at the honor and dignity of Arlington National Cemetery and I am horrified by it in many ways. It is so easy to de-personalize the names on the tombstones; there are so many and it can be so overwhelming.
       So, I snapped the picture in this post so that something could be even remotely personal: Matthew David Suzuki of the United States Army served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He died in December 2012. May he rest in peace.