Photo: The Flag Still Waves: Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery is a place of unexpected and stunning beauty. The simplicity and symmetry of the rows of simple gravestones belies the irony of youth stolen from the strongest as soldiers fall. Generations of our finest who served in our nation's conflicts now lie together as comrades in death. I have been here a few times in my life, as a teen, as a young adult, in middle years and now at age 60. Each time I fall in love with these men and women who died and am touched by unexpected and stunning emotions of new gratitude.