What are you doing this Memorial Day Weekend?
It’s come to my attention that this is a three-day weekend, with Monday being a holiday. For most small business owners there is no day off. For farmers and caretakers, it’s just another day. The work doesn’t stop. But it might mean time to redirect your focus on the things you’d set aside.
The other half of the Edible Santa Barbara publishing team is my husband, Rob Bilson. He’s an Air Force veteran. He served for nearly a decade. His time in the military taught him discipline, organization, strategy, responsibility and committment. He is here now, but many of his fellow airmen were deployed after September 11th and some didn’t come back. My father, who spent his academic career at UCSB, didn’t actually receive a high school diploma because he was drafted into the Army before he could graduate. These two important men in my life were able to take the best of their experience and live on, with their voices influenced by their time in service. Others did not, and that’s the point of Memorial Day: giving time and thought to the ones we lost.
I hope this extended weekend of beautiful weather gives you a chance to pause. We're all so busy, and long weekends are a gift—if you’re able to take a break, I hope you do. For those working through it, I hope you make the most of it and take a small pleasure in knowing we are lucky to live here. We are part of a community that appreciates the good fortunes of Santa Barbara county and we don’t take it for granted. Anyone who can’t because they lost their life in service of their country, be it a close friend, a loved one, or the stranger we will never meet: this time is for you.