I know what you mean about how your views changed after you met/married 3M. I was never particularly patriotic or observant of the flag. But these last 10 years have given me a much greater appreciation. I tear up when I see WWII veterans proudly wearing their medals and saluting the flag as it goes by on a parade. I get choked up looking at that artists rendering of the Vietnam wall- you know, the one with the dad placing his hand on the wall and it reflects the image of his dead son with his hand pressed up against his dad’s?

Once you know an honorable person who had sacrificed it all for his country… once you’ve attended one of those memorial services… it’s all different. But I’m a better person for that difference.