Memorial Day

As Memorial Day approaches, I remember the words of John Donne:

…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind: And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

I read that humanity is like a spider web, touch it anywhere and it trembles. But it is not just death that trembles the web or causes a “disturbance in the force.” As we live our lives and act with kindness, or with hostility toward the people we meet, we set the web a-tremble. The life we touch for good or for ill will touch another life, and then in turn another, until who knows where the web stops trembling or in what far place and time the touch will be felt. “Who is my neighbor,” is asked. Donne responds with his epic verse that begins — “No man is an island.”

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About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.