The Solemnity of Memorial Day

Musings on a Monday Morning from Mike Mullin…

The weekly Newsletter of Without A Vision Consultancy LLC

May 25, 2020

Good morning! If the evocative essence of the lilac is with us but for a snippet of time, must we not pause to drink deeply of its sultry, siren aroma?

Do mallards mourn?
- Absolutely.
- A week ago we watched Mom and her eight or nine freshly-hatched ducklings leave our yard for the river some eight or nine blocks away.
- Between here and there that little parade would have encountered at least eight busy streets and a number of back alleys featuring feral cats and a range of other dangers, but still, you never know. And, once at the river, various ravenous predators.
- Two days later Mom was back, with zero ducklings toddling behind. She was in a near-catatonic state for two days; I physically had to move her while mowing.
- A day later Dad showed up. He was confused, attentive to his mate, alert, but also in a mournful mood.
- Several days of mourning and both seem to be better, they’re eating, moving around some, sleeping lots.
- They must feel safe here in our yard, a familiar place to mourn — where their babies were born — and eventually to move on.
The practice of decorating the graves of soldiers killed in battle has existed for centuries.
- In the United States the tradition gathered steam following Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 and quickly expanded to rank-and-file Civil War battle casualties, especially throughout the Confederacy. Many of the Confederate monuments now at the center of controversies were the outcome of focused publicity campaigns surrounding Memorial Day-like observances.
- Similar traditions soon followed elsewhere.
- Previously known as Decoration Day (the act of decorating the graves of military men and women killed in battle with flowers), the occasion was re-named Memorial Day and made a part of the so-called Monday Holiday Bill in 1971 wherein the last Monday of May was declared an annual federal holiday.
  - May each valiant soldier rest in peace and never be forgotten.
“You do not need to know precisely what is happening or where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.” (Thomas Merton)
“The longer you live in the past, the less future you have to enjoy.” (Uldrich)
Fear, anxiety, and hesitation seem to be waning a bit as we approach eleven weeks of the COVIDs here in Central Minnesota.
- Part of being able to breathe and relax a little bit is knowledge.
- At first we had zero knowledge and thus much of our fear was fear of the unknown — which is always the worst kind of fear.
- Eleven weeks into these COVIDs we have some knowledge, not much, but a little bit, enough for each of us to put the COVIDs into personal perspective and context.
- That’s a big deal and could help us to get back on our feet and start to move forward, but not stupidly or dangerously, please.
- Remember when you were little, sixty or seventy years ago, and a tornado was coming?
- All you heard or knew was the tornado warning sounding on the radio, an ominous, awful-sounding alarm reserved just for tornadoes.
- There was nothing scarier in the world; a tornado would suck you right up into the sky and smash you back down to earth, breaking all of your bones and your skin.
- That’s the only information you had and so you headed directly to the root cellar and its hoped-for safety.
- Today each person has his or her personal high tech weather station right in her or his hand, twenty-four hours a day.
- If a tornado is coming you can watch the radar as it approaches your neighborhood, your actual house, precisely to your front or back yard.
- Having information (knowledge) helps to eliminate much of the fear because you know what’s going on, you don’t have to imagine or guess, you can see it with your own eyes.
- We still don’t begin to have enough information on the COVIDs, but there are enough data to start transitioning to reason vs. emotion.
  - And, going back to the tornado, it’s still out there and it’s just as dangerous, but perhaps a bit less scary because we know right where, when, and how it’s coming.

Memorial Day

By Michael A. Mullin

Sixty years ago the pain, loneliness,

sadness, and sorrow connected with those

killed in the Great War (how can any war be great?!)

were still fresh and raw

and real in the memories

of friends and family.

The parade wasn’t a celebration

but a somber re-funeral procession.

Even the small children who clutched hand-picked

bouquets of wilting lilacs and lilies of the valley

wrapped in wet paper towels knew that.

The march to the cemetery was not about a picnic

or a day off.

It was a reverent pause to pay tribute.

The whole town came — farmers from their fields, too.

Someone intoned Lincoln’s eloquent words,

the speech to end all speeches.

A prayer or two, stoic townspeople ramrod-straight.

Veterans who survived with no visible wounds

dressed in too-tight uniforms shouldering weapons

once carried in battle — a twenty-one guns salute,

taps echoing in the distance blown by an

imperfect bugler from the high school band.

Day is done, gone the sun.

What do you get when you work with Without a Vision Consultancy LLC?
- We listen, we learn, we listen some more — and then we customize our response to deliver:
1. Confidence
2. Clarity
3. Coaching
4. Companionship on your journey… sometimes it gets lonely and it’s good to have a friend.

When you tell others about us — and I hope you will — please emphasize the ways in which we are unique.

I work with individuals, governance structures (Boards), non-profits, and businesses wanting to be bigger, better, stronger, healthier, happier… yes, all five are possible and best done in concert, but it typically requires a coach (consultant) or a companion to help illuminate the path.At Without a Vision Consultancy LLC — www.withoutavision.org — we LISTEN, we LEARN, we LISTEN some more, and only then do we suggest strategic directions unique to your situation. We do not bring a one-size-fits-all template, nor the latest flash-in-the-pan solutions, to working with you.As we work with you we deliver and provide an increase in your CONFIDENCE, and CLARITY while providing coaching and companionship for your journey.We bring more than fifty years of experience from all sides of the Board table in thirteen different leadership roles — 26 of those years as a CEO.

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