My Uncle Robert Garrett USN received military honors this past Monday at Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery. The schedule is tight at the cemetery. Time is meted out with military precision in small increments for final farewells and ceremonies. Those not engulfed in grief – the honor guard and officers – are eminently serious.

With the ceremony concluded, I retrieved my video gear, and walked out. I met the officer in charge of the honor guard and said, “Thank you sir.” He nodded a serious acknowledgment, and then he paused to say something. I turned to look at him, and his face broke into a massive smile as he said, “Merry Christmas!” It was unexpected and beautiful.

And I realized the ceremony he had just performed was his Christmas gift to our family, and his wish brought me right back into a warm and peaceful space from the most solemn one we had just witnessed. I wished him Merry Christmas too, and that was all for our exchange.

But there was a lesson in that moment. That’s why they do what they do – why the military go downrange to risk their lives to put down evils all over the world. Our culture is exceptional for its simple good things, Christmas among them. This officer knew what to protect. He wanted to come home and practice his exceptional Americanism – maybe wish a total stranger Merry Christmas and really mean it. He knew the cost in American lives it took to provide that safe protected space from the persistent forces around us trying to destroy, occupy, and diminish everything American.

The snowflake students talk about their spaces safe from microaggression, completely oblivious to what it costs men like this officer to create the environments where someone like them can waste oxygen on toy battles over petty insults.

Well, he wasn’t wasting his oxygen. He gave out honors, and then Christmas presents. It’s what real Americans do.