Tomorrow is Independence Day, the anniversary of the date in 1776 when the Continental Congress declared the 13 colonies united and free - no longer dependencies of King George and Britain. We celebrate it as the nation’s “birthday,” when this nation began.
In spite of all the ugliness going on at the moment, both medical and political, it is still one heck of a great place to be from, to be proud of, and in which to spend one’s life. The other DrC and I have visited well over 100 countries, some for a day, others for weeks or a month, and we know of nowhere we’d rather call home.
There are other places we’ve said we could probably live comfortably, including Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. And yet others we admired but probably wouldn’t choose for a residence, often for reasons of language incompatibility, Corfu comes to mind.
At the end of the day, returning from overseas, it always feels good to put feet back on U.S. soil. We’ve visited all 50 states and most of its overseas dependencies.
We’ve not just visited but actually resided in each of its four continental time zones, and currently split our year between the two western zones. We don’t particularly identify with one locale, but feel most at home in or west of the Rockies.
So I write to celebrate the United States of America. It’s no coincidence that it draws immigrants - legal and illegal - from all over the world.
Later ... the fabulous fireworks display Melaleuca puts on in Idaho Falls each 4th of July is not happening this year, cancelled by the Covid-19 unpleasantness. Maybe next year?
