Independence Day in the United States is traditionally a time of picnics, family gatherings, maybe a ride to the beach. As the day slides into dusk, the night is filled with the sound of explosions: fireworks filling the sky with great bursts of golden chrysanthemums and silver rockets that you can feel in your bones with every "boom!" Some of us love these dramatic displays in the night. There's a place on a nearby beach where you can put up your folding chair or spread out a blanket and watch fireworks lighting up the skies up in neighboring communities all down the shoreline. It is glorious!
But not everybody
loves these things. Veterans who have returned from military service
in war zones around the world may find that they want to hide--fireworks
sound too much like bombs and artillery to be fun. And a few years
ago our sweet black lab, Luke, was terrified by those sounds, even the
smaller rat-a-tat of cap guns or firecrackers down the block. His
panic was so intense that he would crash through window screens or claw
at the door to get out. Once, trapped in the front seat of our car,
Luke managed to break through the car window when fireworks erupted
somewhere nearby.
Of course, the reason we shoot those things off on July 4 is that we are celebrating freedom. That freedom was proclaimed in 1776 by a brave group of patriots who yearned for the opportunity to govern their own affairs, and to give their children and grandchildren the benefits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of their own happiness. That freedom has endured. And yet today we still worry that there are many who yearn to be free of fear itself.
Freely
Gathered together to laugh and feast
under a banner of stripes and stars,
we remember that we are free
to be fools or saints,
free to stay or leave,
free even to be slaves
to our hungers and passions,
to our own deepest desire
to be left alone.
But we may also remember
a beautiful dream
which haunts our waking hours,
or we may find our feet
stepping down a path
we did not expect,
where something will be given
of our own precious selves,
where we will leave behind
a better world, a kinder day,
that is most sacred, most costly
because it was offered at a price
of love and blood,
given freely.
--Timothy Haut
Of course, the reason we shoot those things off on July 4 is that we are celebrating freedom. That freedom was proclaimed in 1776 by a brave group of patriots who yearned for the opportunity to govern their own affairs, and to give their children and grandchildren the benefits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of their own happiness. That freedom has endured. And yet today we still worry that there are many who yearn to be free of fear itself.
Freely
Gathered together to laugh and feast
under a banner of stripes and stars,
we remember that we are free
to be fools or saints,
free to stay or leave,
free even to be slaves
to our hungers and passions,
to our own deepest desire
to be left alone.
But we may also remember
a beautiful dream
which haunts our waking hours,
or we may find our feet
stepping down a path
we did not expect,
where something will be given
of our own precious selves,
where we will leave behind
a better world, a kinder day,
that is most sacred, most costly
because it was offered at a price
of love and blood,
given freely.
--Timothy Haut
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