Synchronizing.

Malindine, Commanders of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company Synchronizing Watches, June 5, 1944, 1944

D-Day Overlord presents 308 events that marked Operation Overlord hour by hour, minute by minute (an event every 5 minutes for 24 hours).

Thank.

Amen.

Thanks, Kurt.

Individual.

Theodore Roosevelt's Memorial Day thoughts from 1902 ...

Remember always that the independence of a tribe or a community may, and often does, have nothing whatever to do with the freedom of the individual in that tribe or community ... Scant indeed is the gain to mankind from the "independence" of a blood-stained tyrant who rules over abject and brutalized slaves. But great is the gain to humanity which follows the steady though slow introduction of the orderly liberty, the law-abiding freedom of the individual, which is the only sure foundation upon which national independence can be built. 

Memory.

President Reagan's Memorial Day remarks made during ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, May 31, 1982 ...

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Yet, we must try to honor them -- not for their sake alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: the United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we -- in a less final, less heroic way -- be willing to give of ourselves ...

The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI's of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.

Winston Churchill said of those he knew in World War II they seemed to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, "just the best darn kids in the world." Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn't volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization. And how they must have wished, in all the ugliness that war brings, that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.

As we honor their memory, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will ever have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

Whither leadership?

Service.

van Gogh, Sprig of Flowering Almond in a Glass, 1888

There is a great difference between one idler and another idler. There is someone who is an idler out of laziness and lack of character, owing to the baseness of his nature. If you like, you may take me for one of those. Then there is the other kind of idler, the idler despite himself, who is inwardly consumed by a great longing for action who does nothing because his hands are tied, because he is, so to speak, imprisoned somewhere, because he lacks what he needs to be productive, because disastrous circumstances have brought him forcibly to this end. Such a one does not always know what he can do, but he nevertheless instinctively feels, I am good for something! My existence is not without reason! I know that I could be a quite a different person! How can I be of use, how can I be of service? There is something inside me, but what can it be? He is quite another idler. If you like you may take me for one of those.

Vincent van Gogh, from a letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1880

Marvel.

Wyeth, Crescent Moon, 1979

MOON SONG

A child saw in the morning skies

The dissipated-looking moon,

And opened wide her big blue eyes,

And cried: "Look, look, my lost balloon!"

And clapped her rosy hands with glee:

"Quick, mother! Bring it back to me."

A poet in a lilied pond

Espied the moon's reflected charms,

And ravished by that beauty blonde,

Leapt out to clasp her in his arms.

And as he'd never learnt to swim,

Poor fool! that was the end of him.

A rustic glimpsed amid the trees

The bluff moon caught as in a snare.

"They say it do be made of cheese,"

Said Giles, "and that a chap bides there. . . .

That Blue Boar ale be strong, I vow --

The lad's a-winkin' at me now."

Two lovers watched the new moon hold

The old moon in her bright embrace.

Said she: "There's mother, pale and old,

And drawing near her resting place."

Said he: "Be mine, and with me wed,"

Moon-high she stared . . . she shook her head.

A soldier saw with dying eyes

The bleared moon like a ball of blood,

And thought of how in other skies,

So pearly bright on leaf and bud

Like peace its soft white beams had lain;

Like Peace! . . . He closed his eyes again.

Child, lover, poet, soldier, clown,

Ah yes, old Moon, what things you've seen!

I marvel now, as you look down,

How can your face be so serene?

And tranquil still you'll make your round,

Old Moon, when we are underground.

Robert Service

Notice.

The prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to understand whatever he professes to understand, and not merely to persuade other people that he understands it; and though his talents may not always be very brilliant, they are always perfectly genuine. He neither endeavours to impose upon you by the cunning devices of an artful impostor, nor by the arrogant airs of an assuming pedant, nor by the confident assertions of a superficial and imprudent pretender. He is not ostentatious even of the abilities which he really possesses. His conversation is simple and modest, and he is averse to all the quackish arts by which other people so frequently thrust themselves into public notice and reputation.

Adam Smith, from The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Extraordinary.

Before the Second World War, Paxton & Whitfield’s lavishly stocked windows were immortalised by Eric Ravilious and the shop sold some 2,000 Stiltons a year. But rationing and a dearth of farm workers saw its display dwindle to almost nothing — by 1951, you could only buy five cheeses there. In the interim, No. 93 Jermyn Street became an ordinary grocery shop — albeit one where extraordinary things continued to happen. Churchill liked to say that "a gentleman buys his hats at Locks, his shoes at Lobbs, his shirts at Harvie & Hudson, his suits at Huntsman and his cheese at Paxton & Whitfield." 

Respect.

Steven Jenkins on service ...

It's so rare anymore to go in a supermarket where anybody shows any passion about the food that's there. I see so little evidence of people who take it seriously.

You want to get happy? Get passionate. You're going to get paid more. You're going to get more responsibility. You're going to be challenged. Your life is going to be worthwhile.

But it all goes back to the food. Show some respect for the food. Show some desire to know everything there is to know about that particular foodstuff.

More.

Put out more flags.

Crusade.

On this date in 1944, the D-Day invasion of Europe took place during World War II as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is will trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day

Memory.

President Reagan's Memorial Day remarks made during ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, May 31, 1982 ...

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Yet, we must try to honor them -- not for their sake alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: the United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we -- in a less final, less heroic way -- be willing to give of ourselves ...

The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI's of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.

Winston Churchill said of those he knew in World War II they seemed to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, "just the best darn kids in the world." Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn't volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization. And how they must have wished, in all the ugliness that war brings, that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.

As we honor their memory, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will ever have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

Whither leadership?

Overnight.

Wyeth, N.C., Paul Revere's Ride, 1922

This evening, in 1775, Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were on their way to absolutely, positively getting it there overnight.

Bless.

Collins, Bread and Butter, 2022

The PASSING of the YEAR

My glass is filled, my pipe is lit,

     My den is all a cosy glow;

And snug before the fire I sit,

     And wait to feel the old year go.

I dedicate to solemn thought

     Amid my too-unthinking days,

This sober moment, sadly fraught

     With much of blame, with little praise.

Old Year! upon the Stage of Time

     You stand to bow your last adieu;

A moment, and the prompter’s chime

     Will ring the curtain down on you.

Your mien is sad, your step is slow;

     You falter as a Sage in pain;

Yet turn, Old Year, before you go,

     And face your audience again.

That sphinx-like face, remote, austere,

     Let us all read, whate’er the cost:

O Maiden! why that bitter tear?

     Is it for dear one you have lost?

Is it for fond illusion gone?

     For trusted lover proved untrue?

O sweet girl-face, so sad, so wan

     What hath the Old Year meant to you?

And you, O neighbour on my right

     So sleek, so prosperously clad!

What see you in that aged wight

     That makes your smile so gay and glad?

What opportunity unmissed?

     What golden gain, what pride of place?

What splendid hope? O Optimist!

     What read you in that withered face?

And You, deep shrinking in the gloom,

     What find you in that filmy gaze?

What menace of a tragic doom?

     What dark, condemning yesterdays?

What urge to crime, what evil done?

     What cold, confronting shape of fear?

O haggard, haunted, hidden One

     What see you in the dying year?

And so from face to face I flit,

     The countless eyes that stare and stare;

Some are with approbation lit,

     And some are shadowed with despair.

Some show a smile and some a frown;

     Some joy and hope, some pain and woe:

Enough! Oh, ring the curtain down!

     Old weary year! it's time to go.

My pipe is out, my glass is dry;

     My fire is almost ashes too;

But once again, before you go,

     And I prepare to meet the New:

Old Year! a parting word that’s true,

     For we’ve been comrades, you and I—

I thank God for each day of you;

     There! bless you now! Old Year, good-bye!

Robert W. Service

Resolve.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

“The Gettysburg Address,” delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on this day in 1863

Aspire.

President Ronald Reagan's remarks at a Veterans Day Ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, November 11, 1988 ...

Those who live today remember those who do not. Those who know freedom remember today those who gave up life for freedom. Today, in honor of the dead, we conduct ceremonies. We lay wreaths. We speak words of tribute. And in our memories, in our hearts, we hold them close to us still. Yet we also know, even as their families knew when they last looked upon them, that they can never be fully ours again, that they belong now to God and to that for which they so selflessly made a final and eternal act of devotion.

We could not forget them. Even if they were not our own, we could not forget them. For all time, they are what we can only aspire to be: giving, unselfish, the epitome of human love -- to lay down one's life so that others might live. We think on their lives. We think on their final moments. In our mind's eye, we see young Americans in a European forest or on an Asian island or at sea or in aerial combat. And as life expired, we know that those who could had last thoughts of us and of their love for us. As they thought of us then, so, too, we think of them now, with love, with devotion, and with faith: the certainty that what they died for was worthy of their sacrifice -- faith, too, in God and in the Nation that has pledged itself to His work and to the dream of human freedom, and a nation, too, that today and always pledges itself to their eternal memory. 

Liberating.

AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL

O beautiful for spacious skies,

   For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

   Above the fruited plain!

      America!  America!

   God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

   From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

   Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

   Across the wilderness!

      America! America!

   God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

   Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved

   In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved,

   And mercy more than life!

      America!  America!

   May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

   And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream

   That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

   Undimmed by human tears!

      America!  America!

   God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

   From sea to shining sea!

Katharine Bates

Never.

Exceed.

Ari Weinzweig on going the extra mile ...

Extra miles, barely noticeable to the casual observer, can make the difference between keeping a customer or losing them, enriching our community or exhausting it, and even staying in business or going under. They are, I believe, a beautiful way to illustrate French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's statement: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” The point of creating an extra-mile-centric culture is not about what you and I might be able to accomplish on our own. It’s about what the collective can make happen when nearly everyone in the organization gets on board with the idea. As Timothy Snyder says, “If 10,000 little groups do 5,000 little things, that will make a tremendous difference.”

Some extra miles can be systematized. Will Guidara writes: “Identify moments that recur in your business, and build a tool kit your team can deploy without much effort.” The Roadhouse has just such a book, and databases and idea banks with other extra miles abound around the ZCoB. Here, we long ago agreed to use what we call the “:05/:55 Rule.” In order to exceed guest expectations, we actually unlock our doors, and are ready to go, five minutes before our posted opening time, and lock them five minutes after our closing time. Small thing, but really, why not? 

D-Day.

The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on this day in 1944 as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.

Pathé News' "D-Day:Greatest Combined Operation In World's History"...

80th Anniversary proceedings at Normandy American Cemetery will stream HERE at 6:30 a.m.