I’ve not posted for more than three weeks due to a trip I took overseas.

While flying, I had plenty of opportunity to think about a multitude of subjects.  When my wife and I travel abroad, we always return home renewed in our knowledge that all of us in the U.S. have untold opportunities to do virtually anything we want in life, more so than residents of any other country in the world.

Our freedoms are taken by granted by nearly everyone, because we grew up with them and we experience them every day.  But on this day — Memorial Day — we should sincerely stop and think about what we have and how we’ve been able to continue reaping the rewards of having been born in this country or have arrived from other lands and eventually become U.S. citizens.

I will be speaking to the Rotary of Evansville, Indiana, in a month, at the organization’s annual Community Service program. My talk will focus on volunteer service, and as I was writing my speech on the eight-hour flight from London to Chicago last week, it dawned on me that the greatest volunteers of all have been those who volunteered to serve in our military.  And, unfortunately, many of them died in the cause of freedom.

I’m proud that I served in the military and volunteered to do so. But I was never in a combat situation and my life was never at risk.  I am particularly proud of those who served in war conditions and pray daily for the peace makers and peace keepers who represent us overseas today.

But please take a moment today, pause, and in your own way remember those who lost their lives to help protect the freedom you have for a cookout with your family, golf, or just sit around and enjoy a day away from work.