Memorial Day 2026: A Weekend of Rain and Reflection

Weekend of Rain

In my part of the world, Memorial Day weekend festivities have mostly been canceled by rain—and I am glad.

The true reason for this four-day weekend so often gets overshadowed by celebrations, when it should be a time of remembrance for those who lost their lives fighting wars for our freedom. It should be filled with men and women who dusted off their uniforms to march in parades to honor comrades who died. These are the people who may carry the weight of PTSD and survivor’s guilt. Cookouts, parties, and fireworks seem entirely inappropriate when you stop to truly think about it.

Personally, this is an especially mournful weekend because of the people I know who recently passed: a neighbor, a best friend’s spouse, an in-law, and many others. There are also the Americans who recently lost their lives in military operations that were never intended to be wars. Confronting this collective loss naturally turns the mind toward the ultimate question: What comes next?

The Colbert Questionnaire

I read an article from the Christian Post regarding Stephen Colbert’s final late-night interview segment. The article claimed Colbert was a “heretic” based on how he answered his Colbert Questionnaire: “What do you think happens when we die?”

Colbert replied:

“I think of, almost like, it’s more like a feeling, and the feeling is that when we die, I think there is some continuance of some kind. But it’s like a dispersion of the self into some other greater being. And I don’t have any other feelings beyond that.”

What I Believe Happens When We Die

The truth is, no one knows for sure. Like Colbert, I believe we return to our origin. Humans existed long before the Bible was written. People are born all over a world composed of many religious and non-religious beliefs; therefore, no single belief prevails over another.

Also like Colbert, I was raised Catholic. I came to my own enlightenment in the third grade, when our nun explained the “resurrection of the dead.” She warned us that we had to be careful about what we were buried in, because on the last day, our coffins will pop open and we will come out of them to be reunited with our loved ones.

This blew my eight-year-old mind. In all the open-casket wakes I had attended thus far (and there were many), the men were dressed in suits and ties wearing brand-new dress shoes. The women wore nighties and bedroom slippers. The one exception was my ten-year-old cousin, who wore a sweater instead of a suit. The image of a graveyard popping open to reveal women dressed for bed and men dressed for work felt absurd.

By third grade, all of us had memorized the Baltimore Catechism. Question 21 directly challenged what the nun was telling us, proving God could not have created the literal, physical version of heaven she described:

• Question 21: Is God all-wise, all-holy, all-merciful, and all-just?

• Answer: Yes, God is all-wise, all-holy, all-merciful, and all-just.

I don’t remember “Sister Mary Gumdrop’s” real name, but I would like to thank her for sparking the philosophical section of my brain.

Colbert’s idea of the “dispersion of the self into some other greater being” is exactly what I believe. This epiphany actually came to me during a Bible study of Revelation 21:16, describing the New Jerusalem:

The city was shaped like a cube, because it was just as high as it was wide. When the angel measured the city, it was about 2,400 kilometers high and 2,400 kilometers wide.

To me, it resembles Star Trek’s Borg—a collective, unified consciousness. I think the writers knew the Bible reference. The Borg is a cube!

America’s Answer to Where We Go

There is no single correct answer, and our country was built on that very fact. Religion played a major role in the American Revolution, which is why freedom of religion is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It explicitly prevents the government from prosecuting “heresy.”

Instead of a traditional heaven or hell, I find myself believing in the Old Soul Theory.

“An Old Soul is someone who has lived many lives before this one, possessing a depth of wisdom far beyond their years.”

This isn’t strict reincarnation. An old soul can abide in any living thing—even a tree, as many pagans believe. All that has life has a soul.

Consider the timeline: the Earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old. Humans are about 300,000 years old. Christianity is roughly 2,000 years old. “Soul age” simply refers to the level of developmental maturity a soul has reached across a long cycle of incarnations. You can believe this or not, according to your personal comfort level.

Room Enough for Us All

I think there is room enough for all of us to believe whatever gives us solace.

The Pledge of Allegiance reads:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Let us not forget the indivisible part this Memorial Day. Let us honor all who died while protecting our First Amendment right to freedom of speech and belief—regardless of what those individual beliefs might have been.