TheBanyanTree: Independence Day

[Margaret R. Kramer]

The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation.  ~Woodrow
Wilson

I like it when the 4th of July is hooked to a weekend.  Then this great
summer holiday is stretched over a few days and we don’t have to try to cram
all our fun stuff into one day and then go back to work.

The last couple of nights have seen our neighborhood explode with fireworks.
It seems a lot of our neighbors have made the run for the border and bought
illegal fireworks in Wisconsin, stuffed them into the trunk, and drove home.

The minute the sun sets and it begins to get dark, the sky above our house
becomes illuminated with the colors of the rainbow, the explosions are
almost deafening, and a thick smoke hangs in the air.  This 4th of July
weekend has drawn our neighbors out of their homes and has tied us together
in a way other holidays do not.

There’s been some action this morning, but not the fireworks kind.  All of a
sudden, I heard the crows start screeching.  I thought that they might be
having a fight over territory and then I saw this black cat streaking
towards the house with a little squirrel hanging from his mouth.  The poor
squirrel was crying for its life.

Our screen door has a hole in it that the cat uses to go in and out of the
house and sure enough, the black cat with its screaming prize was in the
house by the time I got downstairs.  I yelled at him to leave and I opened
the door, and thank goodness, the cat realized I was serious and zipped back
outside.  He slipped under the deck with the squirrel and pretty soon I
could no longer hear the squirrel crying.  I guess this incident
demonstrates the “law of the jungle,” rather than freedom and independence.

But I’ve enjoyed my own independence from the “law of the jungle” these past
four days.  Our pace of living has slowed down to a crawl, even though we
didn’t go out of town.  After the grandsons went home yesterday, leaving
total exhaustion in their wake, Ray and I took long summer naps.  After I
got up, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading on our upper deck, with a
glass of lemonade within reach.  I’ve read almost three books this weekend.
It reminds me of my girlhood summers when a good book was my best friend.

I had a great run along with river on Saturday, but now my left knee refuses
to bend, so I’m hobbling at the pace of a very slow snail rather than
walking.  I skipped the gym yesterday, but I’m going to try to do something
there today, at least do a few push-ups and sit-ups, and maybe sit in the
whirlpool for a while.

I’ll buy some flowers to decorate our picnic tables after I leave the club.
I’ll bake brownies when I get home.  I’ll get our picnic table set up with a
4th of July tablecloth and other festive decorations.  The family will come
over later this afternoon.  We’ll have our annual croquet competition.  We’
ll sit and talk.  The boys will ride their bikes and play catch with their
dad.  We’ll eat.  And then we’ll wait for the sun to set.

And when we reach the point when the fading sunlight hovers between evening
and night, the fireworks celebrating our country’s birth will begin.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, 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. .  ~Erma Bombeck