Independence
- stillhotundertheco
- Jul 5, 2021
- 2 min read
July 5, 2021
Columbus, Ohio
The 4th of July in our new community was something like stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting. The parade passed right by our home, with floats featuring local businesses and politicians and the high school band tooting out "This is My Country." We invited our neighbors to breakfast and viewing on our lawn and the day was temperate and inviting. The fireworks display last night was one of the best we've seen and the only questionable behaviors we witnessed were some folks who left their trash behind for the clean up crews to pick up. (Not cool!) The high school vocal ensemble sang the national anthem and the 7500 people stood and became quiet and respectful. That's a good way to be even when you hold conflicting feelings about our country.
This week we discovered that my passport had expired and we applied for a renewal with a rush order. We don't have plans to travel anywhere specifically at this point (although we do have some dreams taking shape.) But I had an unusual need to know that I could leave the country if I wanted to do so. Our democracy seems fragile, even with a new and intelligent and mindful administration.
These are my thoughts on this day after Independence Day. Frankly, independence is over-rated. I depend on the beloveds in my life for a host of things, but mostly to remind me that goodness and life will have the final word.
Today's poem is a hymn text found in Evangelical Lutheran Worship and other places. The Indigo Girls also covered it. I've posted the link at the bottom of the page.
This Is My Song by Lloyd Stone and Georgia Harkness
This is my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine; this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine: but other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine. My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine; but other lands have sunlight too, and clover, and skies are everywhere as blue as mine: O hear my song, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine. May truth and freedom come to every nation; may peace abound where strife has raged so long; that each may seek to love and build together, a world united, righting every wrong; a world united in its love for freedom, proclaiming peace together in one song.* *Third stanza by Georgia Harkness. St. 3 © 1964 Lorenz Publishing Co. Sts, 1, 2 © 1934, 1962 Lorenz Publishing Co.
Here's a link to the Indigo Girls' version:
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