The number can never truly be calculated. Even if it could be, it would be incomprehensible.
Only the weight of the obligation can be felt.
The balance will never be attained. We will always owe more than we could hope to repay.
But that is not what they ask of us. Only to be remembered. That their acts be not in vain. That lessons are learned.
So we endeavor in live in their shadows. To prove ourselves worthy of their example.
And maybe, just maybe, to be honored as they are. To achieve our own bit of immortality.
Worth remembering.
(This flag was flown at half mast to honor Officer Alex Yazzie of the Diné (Navajo Nation) killed in the line March 19, 2015.)