The publisher of a magazine for a large not-for-profit organization told me once that his board of advisors resisted approving $30,000 to replace a piece of equipment more than they did if he needed $10 million to buy ink.

"It occurred to me that they all had some idea what $30,000 looked like," he said.  "But, $10 million was something most of them had never seen."

The price of war is like that.  As Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom continue, commentators, pundits and elected officials talk so much about the "cost" of this war in numbers that are so huge, they are practically irrelevant to most people.

What they are actually talking about, though, is the "price" of this war.

It's a legitimate subject for discussion.  As taxpayers we have every right to know how much the government spends, because - as Ronald Reagan said, it's not the government's money, it's our money.   Of course, the numbers are mind numbingly huge, and it's easy to take them on faith.

Those numbers are not going to come down anytime soon, and neither will the cost of this war.  Every day the cost of the war is added to the price, and that cost is something we should not ignore.

The cost of any war includes the number of service members who are killed, and the impact that has on their families.  Seen today in absolute terms, that impact includes the emotional blow and the cost of survivors' benefits paid to what is surely the most married military we've ever had.

The cost also includes the number of wounded and injured service members.  These fine men and women at the very least will receive some form of compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs, but many will face physical and emotional reconstruction costs each of us will bear into the middle of this century.

I think about the cost of war a lot, and I'm especially aware of it during Military Appreciation Month.  Each May, we are asked to pause a bit in our daily lives as we prepare for summer and school breaks, to thank the people who make it possible for us to drive to the beach or root for our favorite baseball teams.  That freedom comes to us at a price, and there has not been a generation that has not included people willing to bear that burden for the rest of us.

It is good that there is a month set aside to celebrate, commemorate and thank the men and women of the military.  It gives us 31 days to contemplate what it means to have a military that volunteered to serve us all.

It is good we can reflect on Armed Forces Day on May 19 and the anniversary of the founding of the Women's Army Corps on May 14, 1941.  It's nice to note that Bob Hope was born on May 29.  But, Memorial Day is the most solemn of our salutes to the sacrifices inherent in military service.  Ever since mothers decorated graves of Civil War dead in the North and the South late in the 19th Century, Americans have gathered in small and large ceremonies across the nation to honor those who died in our service.

So, when mattress vendors tell me (loudly) how much I can save on the very best 2-piece sleep set; or when car dealers urge me to get a new set of wheels for all that summer travel, I will once again resist the temptation to shout at my television that Memorial Day is far more than an excuse for a sale.  It's when we take the time to realize what the cost of liberty is.  We cannot put a price on that.