All of my life, ever since I figured this distinction out, I've been what they call an iconoclast . Quakers, as a group, tend to be very leery of symbols, because we know, or at least we suspect, that symbols have the potential for being mixed up with the realities they represent, or the realities they represent can be forgotten, or exchanged for some other reality, which may have a different meaning altogether. Quakers have been especially reluctant to go along with sacraments, which are rituals or symbolic activities used by many other branches of the family of Christ. In the Protestant version, sacraments are generally reminders of an inward state or change. In the Catholic version, sacraments are actually supposed to cause an inward change.
Baptism is inward .
The reality of communion is inward . The outward sign does not necessarily cause an inward change. And the outward sign may give either a misleading understanding, or it may become a fake substitute for the inward change that needs to take place. This has gotten a long way from Memorial Day. It also seems like a long way from Jacob's ladder.