Hail and Farewell

I was at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, honoring my father at his funeral.



Honor Guard at the Caisson.  the riderless horse can be seen at Left

...and they move off to the gravesite.

It was stately, solemn, respectful and celebratory.  Dad would have loved it.  He would have loved it even more if there had been some little children to sit on his lap and have things explained to them, then told a bedtime story.

Let us now sing the praises of famous men, our ancestors in their generations…

There were those who ruled in their kingdoms, and made a name for themselves by their valor…

all these were honored in their generations, and were the pride of their times.

Some of them have left behind a name, so that others declare their praise.

But of others there is no memory; they have perished as though they had never existed;

they have become as though they had never been born, they and their children after them.

But these also were godly men, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten;

Their offspring will continue forever, and their glory will never be blotted out.

Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name lives on generation after generation.

                                      (from Ecclesiasticus)