We tell jokes about things that make us a little uneasy. When we're young, we tell jokes about the relationships between men and women. It's a fearsome thing to lose one's memory. Our memories are what we are. We are our memory.
Memory is identity.
And it's all stored in memory. And if all of that goes away, then we have no idea who we are. The fact that my name is Randolph Merritt Bragg is just a label. Now, I'm getting a chance to do something this year that I've wanted to do for a long time. It's been three years since these lessons come up again in the lectionary, and I've been waiting for them to come around again on the Sunday before Memorial Day, because I want to preach two Memorial Day services, and this year the lessons give me the opportunity to do that.