It is Pearl Harbor Day today. As men and women of my parents' generation pass on, the event slips from memory into history. Soon it will be just another factoid for students to memorize, when for the generation before mine it was the defining event of their young lives. I have only vignette memories of WWII.

In terms of the multi-millenial sweep of history, 70 years isn't a very long time, but in human lifetimes, 70 is nearly a life span. President Franklin D. Roosevelt termed it a day that will live in infamy (how many people even know what "infamy" means in this age of proud ignorance?); it's an event that most people, in my experience, recall only vaguely, if at all.

When I leave here, a few people will remember me for a little while. Then it will be as if I never lived at all, except in the memories of people who love me and I them. In a larger context, I think my years of service in a service industry contributed to the overall welfare, and I am content.

Moving on, I am.