Chicago, November 11, 2004: Veterans' Day Memorial Peace Ceremony

As I was leaving today's downtown memorial service for military vets -- living and dead -- a couple of the former soldiers noticed a remembrance someone had left at the sign marking the memorial: a small pile of ashes and chips of bone.

The vets were adamant that they believed the stuff to be human remains, a bit of what the crematory leaves behind. No note. No identifying signifyer. Not a single flower. No epitaph but this small, pale mound of someone's memories.

There was a bracing wind gusting as we left, skudding the dust along the face of the memorial plate and spinning it into the air.