Jul 5, 2008

Indepence Day





















Canada celebrated a sort of Independence Day July 1. But their departure from British rule in 1867 was gentler than had been that of those rebellious American colonies some 90 years earlier.

Maybe both Canada and Great Britain had learned something about the value of a peaceful parting of ways in the interim.

My sister and her husband, my Minnesota cousin, and I drove into Chicago for the July 3 fireworks display.

We found dinner at Taste of Chicago, listened to the Grant Park Orchestra, and oohed and aahed at the fireworks bursting over the lakeside treetops.

What does Independence Day mean today? I like to view it in broader terms – that it’s mankind’s independence from peer pressure, marketing skills, drug culture, materialism.

I believe mankind has a wonderful legacy of learning to lean on the Almighty – both for important and less important life decisions. That there’s a universal intelligence that cares about His/Her creation, and is constantly speaking to each of us with specific good, useful, and productive ideas.

If this is so, we don’t have to be dependent on selfishness, greed, ignorance, or fear for making individual or national decisions.

This is the Independence Day celebration I love to participate in.


Hundreds of thousands of pedestrians
exit Grant Park after the fireworks

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