Six years ago, tonight, we opened the Walk of the Fallen—the Labyrinth itself, not this blog. Upon that night, we lit a fire, I put on my very old Army Class A uniform and those simple ribbons and awards I was entitled to wear, and I went out to read a list of the dead from the Iraq War. I had not yet begun writing the names of those fallen in Afghanistan.

The Labyrinth began as a form of mourning and protesting a war I thought unjustly begun, based upon lies. The war in Afghanistan, at least then, struck me as having more plausible cause. I had just over 400 names that night, and besides the list in my hand, each of those was written upon a luminaria glowing in the dark around the circuits of the Walk. Pagan friends and family were with us that night as the full moon appeared and disappeared behind heavy clouds. A young trumpeteer came and played “Taps” at the end and the clouds wept upon the stones in finish.

The second year, there were over 1100 dead, in Iraq alone. And in 2005, I listed 2500+ names on tiny slips of card-stock, slipped them into glass test tubes and mounted them on a wall behind plexiglass frames. That was the last year I opened the Walk to the public on Veterans’ Day…and nobody came at all.

The year Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, I quietly stung beads, one per dead troop and hung them upon the monument. The following Memorial Day, I wrote names and added strands for the troops that had died in Afghanistan.

So it has gone since. I keep the books of the dead—Americans and Coalition troops from the effort in Afghanistan and Iraq. At each new moon, I look at the totals and when a full 200 more bright lives have been snuffed out, I string shining beads and carry them to the center stone. Weekly, I walk each newly released name within, and pour a libation upon the stone and wish them peace and justice.

In winter now, the beads will reside inside for shelter from the wet and bitter cold; some of the more fragile beads shattered and I have re-strung and replaced half the strands. They hang by my altar and indoors or out, remind me of the debts of a nation not nearly grateful enough for the courage and fortitude of its military men and women.

I will soon add more beads, including beads for those who died at Ft. Hood this week. For although the Army will not count them as casualties of the wars, they certainly would not be dead if those wars were not ongoing.

My praise and honor to the men and women of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard! May your God(s) keep you and bless you with all good things, or if the fortunes of war so fall out, may they take you to whatever eternal home comforts you and bring solace to your survivors.

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