Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day set aside to honor those fallen in our country’s wars, and those who served and are now gone.

Some romance authors have built whole careers on wounded heroes returning from battles ranging from Waterloo to Fallujah.

U. Marines on Tinian

A convention of the romance genre is a Happily Ever After or Happily For Now at the end of each story. Like every other type of genre fiction, the tale is a reminder of the times we’ve loved or acted courageously or even triumphed, a brief escape into a well-ordered, logical world.

That the shining moment of new love won’t last is a given, because people grow old and sometimes they grow apart. And sometimes they die young, and heroically, and for people they don’t even know.

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma, California

Author C.S. Lewis said there are four kinds of love:

Storge or affection, a fondness from familiarity.

Philia or friendship, the love between friends.

Eros, or romance, loving a particular someone.

Agape, or unconditional love.

This last is the love we celebrate today, the willingness to step up and lay down one’s life.

While Memorial Day in the United States is rooted in the tradition of decorating the graves of those who fell in battle, the honors should be extended to all those who served in the military, both in times of war, and in times of peace.

U.S. Soldiers at Afghan Border April 2013, Source Wikimedia

In this time of war, let’s include the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s the best way to honor them? Author and veteran, Phil Klay tells us how: Treat Veterans With Respect, Not Pity.

And I would add, gratitude. My husband, himself a veteran, always reminds me that anyone in uniform–even cooks, clerks, or mechanics–is potentially in harm’s way.

Thank you, veterans, for your sacrifice, your courage, your love!