The Bell is Ringing

No one is an island, isolated by itself,
Everyone is part of the continent, part of the mainland.
If earth be washed away by the sea,
then our land has diminished,
As well as if a city were,
As well as if someone of your friends or your own were.
Anyone's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved with humankind.
Therefore do not call to see for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee.

--paraphrased John Donne

Death, Be not Proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

by John Donne

Remembering...

First, in the modified words of Paul, "What special honor do we give to our own who have served and died in our defense?  Much in every way!  They have preserved our life and way of life, often at a great price.  They have done it so that we did not have to."

Then a poem by John Donne for today, which summarizes the broader sense of homo sapiens (wise human, evolved human), as well as that of the Christian:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; 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.