Earworms...

Top of the evening everyone.

Apparently, one of the new terms out there is an earworm.  It is when a song gets stuck in your head. Thank God there is YouTube and Vemo to take care of this problem.

One of the songs in my head lately has been Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Find the Cost of Freedom."  It really is a stupendous song about the costs of war.

The first lyric: "find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground."

It says that when we go to war, people die.  They pay the ultimate sacrifice to maintain the freedoms we cherish.

I have been thinking about that song.  Why?  Back in 2019, one of my former Marines (and my martial arts instructor for Grey Belt) took his life.  I found out about it a couple of months later.  I found the obituary.  One of the people who left a condolence note was also a Marine.  He wrote that he would be coming to see his friend soon.

Two fellow chaplains and I spent the afternoon tracking down the Marine who had written the condolence note.  He has started a business, with a focus on helping veterans.  Since then, I have made the mental decision to switch to using products and businesses that are veteran-owned and run.

Veterans in both the US and Canada suffer from all matter of challenges - mental illness, unemployment, homelessness.  As nations, we have a responsibility to them, even after the hurly burly is done.

As such, with great respect to CSN, I am reworking that lyric.

"Find the cost of freedom, sleeping on that bench."

R/SCG