I thought it was sort of fitting that Jesse Helms died on the Fourth. I am diametrically opposed to almost everything he believed--racial policies, gay/lesbian policies, military policies, maybe not fiscal. But I respect his devotion to his country and his determination to do what he thought was right. May he rest in peace as the flag flies tonight.
Often holidays are tough for me--not Christmas and Thanksgiving, which are clearly family holidays, but the Fourth or Memorial Day or Labor Day. They loom as long empty weekends, because the kids are busy with their friends, everyone else seems busy, and I'm sort of adrift. But today was a happy day--my neighbors, Jay and Susan, took me with their family to the local country club to watch fireworks. I've avoided them because the thud made me uncomfortable, and I thought we'd watch inside tonight, but there was an enormous crowd and no place to sit. They'd brought chairs for the elderly (Susan's parents and me) and we watched from a covered balcony where there was a nice breeze, no mosquitoes, and the noise didn't seem to bother me. I really enjoyed it. Got a brief glimpse of Jordan, Jacob and Christian--and a sweet kiss and hug from Jacob.
It's sometimes a bit hard for me to work up my sense of patriotism with the straits that our country is in now--you name it, from disastsrous weather to global warming, to war in parts of the world that aren't ours, to high gas prices and the resulting economic distress, it's pretty dismal. But tonight I sat on that balcony and watched the enormous--it really was!--crowd below, many with red and blue lights flashing in lapel pins, and I thought this is what America is about. The loudspeaker screeched an awful rendition of the anthem, at full volume of course, but it still hit me as we all stood. And during the fireworks, they played patriotic music instead of the soft rock they'd been playing at too high a volume. I loved hearing "America the Beautiful" and other songs. It was a neat evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment