Happy July 4th!!

I do have an annual musing for today, but I thought I’d just give you my usual paragraph one information first. The weather: today is perfect. The sky is a deep blue unmarred by any clouds. It is 78˚ but doesn’t feel hot. The back of the house, here in the den, is still cool from last night. Speaking of last night, the firecrackers were loud and went on for a while. The dogs slept through it.

My plans for today are simple. I’ll finish here and hit the deck, maybe read a little or even nap a bit. The big excitement is I have a uke concert tonight on the Hyannis Green. We’re playing from the bluegrass book then will end with a few patriotic tunes in honor of the day. I’m going to wear my glitzy red shirt and my Lady Liberty fascinator. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

I just love birthdays and today is the grandest of them all. 

On July 3rd 1776, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail. In it, he predicted the celebrations for American Independence Day, including the parties:

“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.”

John Adams expected July 2nd to be Independence Day as that was the day the Second Continental Congress voted for independence, but the signing ceremony for the Declaration of Independence didn’t happen until two days later so because July 4th appears on the Declaration, it became the date we celebrate Independence.

I know some people complain that the meaning of the day is lost in the barbecues and the fireworks, but they have forgotten John Adams’ hope. We are honoring the day exactly as he wished. Flags are waving everywhere. Families get together to celebrate and to break bread, albeit hot dog rolls. Fireworks illuminate the sky. Baseball is played on small town fields and in huge stadiums. Drums beat the cadence in parades. We sing rousing songs celebrating America and our freedom. We also sing heartfelt songs about what America means to us. We are many sorts of people, we Americans. We don’t all look the same, practice the same religion, eat the same foods or dress in the same way, but we all celebrate today.

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” Happy Birthday, America, from all of us Americans.