My travel plans squelched for the foreseeable future, I was elated when my traveling buddies from California posted a memory on Facebook. We’d traveled to White Horse Station in the Yukon Territory to view the colorful night sky at the Northern Lights Resort. There, in addition to the aurora borealis, we were introduced at breakfast to the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, a clever German device for removing just the shell cap of a cooked egg.

It’s always satisfying to perfect a skill. No matter the skill, it takes a lot of practice and desire. It’s funny though. There is no one perfect way to do anything -- we each have our own sense of perfection. Once we master a skill, we raise it to perfection by adding our own personal touch.

Growing up, my family and I went to church often. Raising a large family and moving from out of town, church gave my young married parents a social and moral start to their new lives together. We loved it. They taught Sunday School every Sunday, met their lifelong friends, and assured that all seven of us kids went through Lutheran Confirmation.

Every year about this time, most of us feel the summer season crack open with a variety of Memorial Day celebrations and a hunger for the pleasure that only a barbecue, good friends, and camaraderie around a fire pit can satisfy.

The band was back.

I never thought of I’d be a cat person until Onyx wandered onto our lower field. Bruce and I were pleased to finally have a cat to control the mice and rats. Onyx edged closer to the barn. He acted two faced, sitting on a stump and hissing. Then he’d meow like he wanted to be friends.

Today is Memorial Day, an almost unique holiday for us. We do not celebrate with joy; rather, we honor fallen soldiers with a wistful sadness in our hearts. Some of that sadness stems from the fact that so many of us know, or knew, some of those we honor.

As Memorial Day approaches, I found myself thinking back to when I was a child and marched in the Memorial Day parade. In my American Legion uniform, I proudly marched down the street. It was 1957 and close to when the Allies across the world defeated fascism, ending World War II. Europe and Asia were in shambles.

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision reversed the “separate but equal” doctrine and desegregated schools. We tend to hold that as proof that our nation turned around race relations and a true testament of our willingness to do what is right. But that is not the whole story.

I feel bad for most people. They have never had one of the greatest joys in life: getting to know a lot of teenagers really well.