Spending Fourth of July Alone

Dena, Joshy, and I went to Chicago over the Fourth holiday.  We had a wonderful time.  We visited the "Taste of Chicago", went to Cantigny, had an awesome time visiting family, and also enjoyed just getting away for a short time.  Then, on July 4th, we drove back.  I went to Kentucky and the rest of my family drove to Tennessee. For a short time, I felt sorry for myself.  I sat in a camper by myself.  No fireworks.  No grilling out.  No friends.  Nothing. 

But then I started to gain some perspective on the day.

The first thing that I was able to do was to view the celebration from a distance.  I have made a living, in part, by learning to observe people.  And yesterday was fantastic to observe from a distance.  I watched as young teenagers were kayaking in the lake and splashing each other endlessly.  I watched as several people were playing a pick-up game of touch football.  People were grilling, playing frisbee, fishing.  People had campfires roaring.  Kids were playing with water balloons.  And the sounds of laughter, and happiness, and joy filled the air.  In so many ways it was so distinctly American and a wonderful celebration of our freedom as a nation.  It represented one of the reasons that we are still the greatest nation on earth.

Secondly, I thought of one of the main reasons that we were able to celebrate our independence and freedom; the American military.  These men and women are away from their families for months and sometimes years at a time.  They voluntarily protect our country so that we can have celebrations like the ones I observed.  I also thought back to a speech that President Ronald Reagan wrote in 1981.  In his writing, Ronnie wrote about the framers of the Declaration of Independence.  He noted that men such as John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife and for more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, and his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.  He was not alone.  Men such as Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.

So to spend the Fourth of July in a non-traditional way doesn't seem like such a high price to pay when considering what the military volunteers for and the stories of what the framers of the Declaration endured. 

Don't get me wrong.  I would have loved to be with family and friends yesterday and I hope and pray that my life will return to some form of "normalcy" in the near future.  But, in a strange kind of way, I enjoyed seeing the holiday from a different perspective.

God Bless America!!!!