Laughter and beauty are the universal languages transcending the tangled semantics of cross-cultural interchange, inspiring and lifting us above the quagmire of envy and hate. Wartime squeezes the joy out of Mother's Day, birth of babies, Christmas and the first wisp of spring when separation and the threat of everlasting loss paralyses us with a sense of impending doom. There are no spectators in the race of life encircling the globe. Each of us plays a part big or small by choice or passive complacency in deciding what the concept of freedom blended with responsibility to God and country really means down deep in our hearts. A quiet moment is given in reflection to the memory of loved ones lost to aging, accidents, homicide, suicide and conflicts home and abroad.