To Honor All Our Losses - To Be Continued

Perhaps it was the wind whipping around me at about 45mph, or the cold rain (lightly falling), that made me reflect so personally about what I was seeing in this cemetery. I could hear the surf in the near distance and see the waves crashing around on this bone chilly day. I felt the emotion welling up in my chest as we walked further toward the chapel that had been built there.

I was in the American Cemetery at Normandy.

So why this poem? Why now? What does this have to do with running a Company?

Everything. Absolutely everything.

My Dad fought in WWII, Army. My Mom became active in the Army during Korea. This is how they met. When they married, they were openly discriminated against because my Father was American Indian and my Mom was Anglo. They both served – as is described so eloquently here in McRaven’s poem – and taught me to look out for others by the many actions I saw them take while I was growing up.

Perfect. No. They were not. Neither am I. On the field of life actively. Yes.

What did stick with me all these years later is that it is important to live life in service of others. To stick with a mission even facing all the odds of failure. To just face the odds and work alongside those on my Team who also face the challenges with good humor, courage, and a tenacity to complete the work in a good way.

The goal here at Tek Pak INC is to keep great paying jobs in the US – no change on this mission over the last 33 years. As I reflect on my time in Normandy I remember those who are buried there, under all those crosses, and salute those today who come alongside to encourage and cocreate with me to keep great paying jobs in the US.

Even though some aspects of our world today seem totally antithetical to why the world teamed up to fight for a very noble cause in WWII I know that there are more people here today, all around me, who understand why this mission here at Tek Pak is so important. We can be an example. And with God’ help – an example for good – no matter what is going on all around us.

Enjoy McRaven’s writing – I hope it resonates with you as much as it did with me in advance of this fine Memorial Day weekend. We do have much to be thankful for.

‍ ‍The Crosses (A Poem for Memorial Day)

By William H. McRaven, The Atlantic

01 June 21

‍ ‍This poem is dedicated to all the men and women, regardless of faith, who made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation.

I have stood before the crosses as we laid a soldier down. They cast a simple shadow upon the upturned ground.

The bugler sounds taps as each cross its witness bears to the journey of a soldier released from earthly cares.

I have stood before the crosses and prayed a lonely prayer, in hopes of some redemption as I struggled to compare

My life of long contentment with the soldier’s hallowed call to warrant with his dying breath a better world for all.

I have stood before the upturned ground and struggled to compare my courage and my character with the man or woman there.

Would I have died a valiant death in a foreign land, upon a distant battlefield, to save my fellow man?

I have stood before the crosses as the sun was going down, watching as the shadows faded upon the upturned ground.

I have looked upon the hillside of the crosses, row on row, upon the young and brave of heart never to grow old.

I have knelt before the crosses at night, before I sleep, and made upon my bended knee a covenant I keep:

To live a life of service, to honor all our losses, for those who went before us, those beneath the crosses.