A Thread: This may not be the most original take in the world, but it is one that occurs to me nonetheless: Yes, more Pa. counties will open this weekend. But instead of rushing out to The First Church of Hanging out at the Mall, perhaps stop to consider this one thing:

There is no more appropriate time for Americans to forego the rush to the shore; the BBQ; to not grease the grinding wheels of commerce and just stay the hell home for Memorial Day this year.

After all, what is Memorial Day other than a solemn remembrance of those who have fallen in service to the nation? As we head into this long weekend, nearly 100,000 of our fellow citizens have died from COVID-19. To put that in a historical perspective, that is more than:

The 57,939 Americans who died or were missing in the Vietnam War; more than the 78,718 who died in the Mexican War of 1846-48, an order of magnitude more than the 2,977 Americans who died in the attacks of 9/11/2001

It's tragic that so many of us are unemployed; that so many of us will go into the weekend without a loved one at the table because they've died or are in the hospital fighting for their lives; We miss them all. We mourn them all. And we pray that we'll be with them soon

But maybe, just maybe, for a scant 48 hours, forget about what's open and what's closed, stop, pay the ultimate tribute this Memorial Day to all that we've lost these last few months, and then start dreaming up a way to put all the lessons we've learned in this great quiet to use

I can hang in there without a haircut for a little while longer. And on Monday, I'll be honoring the memory of someone my family lost. What if we all just stopped and did that together? It strikes me that it would not be that great an additional hardship.