For as long as I can remember I have always had something fun to do on the Fourth of July. There has always been someone hosting a big party or Mike and I have been traveling. I don’t recall ever just sitting at home with no destination in mind. This year was far different from any of my previous celebrations and I found the experience to be enlightening.
Virtually everyone with whom I normally celebrate was out of town this year. I suppose that the four day weekend that most people had allowed them to travel a bit farther from home and they took advantage of the opportunity. My brother who so often opened up his beach home was in the far north of the United States. My eldest daughter who has hosted pool parties at her house for several years was in the midwest in anticipation of her eldest son’s orientation at Purdue this week. Mike and I had stayed in town because I was finishing up my term at summer school and we were planning a trip in early August. Continue reading “A Remarkable Unremarkable Day”
I’m a bonafide cornball. I cry at weddings and when I hear truly beautiful music. I get goosebumps standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial or driving along Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. I am humbled with every visit to Arlington National Cemetery. I’m one of those people who likes to travel to other lands but feels a sense of relief when I am back on American soil. I love the United States with every fiber of my being in spite of its flaws because I believe that it is one of the few places on earth where a nobody like me has the opportunity and the freedom to speak my mind and to live better than kings once did. Whenever I hear the Star Spangled Banner being sung by a crowd of fellow citizens I am moved to the very fiber of my soul. 
In case you’ve missed it there is a great deal more going on in the world than just the events that have affected citizens of the United States. As is typical of the summer months the world is on fire. We need to closely monitor the economic crisis in Greece because one way or another it will have an effect on all of Europe and eventually the rest of the world. Spain, Portugal, and Italy are not too far behind Greece in having difficulties maintaining the social programs and monetary security of their governments. China is quietly weathering a slowdown in growth that the nation can ill afford. The governor of Puerto Rico has announced that the public coffers are empty and the territory will not be able to meet the obligations of outstanding bills. As if these developments were not worrisome enough on their own ISIS continues to rear its ugly head with terrorist attacks in France and Tunisia. They have boasted that many more countries may endure violence in the coming weeks. It’s enough to make one feel as though the world as we know it is coming to an end. All in all there seems to be little that those of us who are ordinary citizens may do and so I’d like to suggest that we learn how to laugh again.
I keep having bouts of deja vu as I work at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. The building is different from when I went to school there and yet it is not. The neighborhood is filled with people that I have never met and still it is so familiar. It is a strange feeling to return to the place where I once received the foundations of my education now that I am a teacher. 
