Reflections on the 5th of July

Happy 5th of July! With the 4th falling on a Sunday, many folks are getting the opportunity to celebrate a long weekend of independence, so I don't feel too bad about taking this long to get another post up. Good news! I have a reader. I found out that my wife's Aunt Sue is a regular reader of the blog. That makes two of us. With this rate of growth in my readership, I should reach literally dozens of people over the next few years. In all seriousness, thanks to those of you who have taken the time to check out my blog. I hope you have had as much fun reading it as I've had writing it.

So, without further ado, my reflections on the 5th of July:

1) It's hard to preach a 4th of July sermon. I thought about entitling my first 4th of July sermon America: Love It or Leave It but then I thought better of it. I knew that if I had, some bold critic (I'm not sure who these critics are, but I'm sure they're out there) would have dismissed by sermon as the jingoistic rantings of an unsophisticated nativist. (For all of my readers out there that are unfamiliar with jingoism, it's a negative term used by many to describe people who kind of like the US) After abandoning America: Love It or Leave It I settled in on a nice sermon from the Psalms.

2) I'm not sure when Independence Day became Eat Until You Can No Longer Stand Upright and Your Arteries Now Flow With Pork Fat and Coca-Cola Day (referred to from here as EUYCNLSU&YANFWPF&CCD) but I wholeheartedly endorse it! I've found that I celebrate my freedom more vigorously on a full stomach.

3) My brother-in-law noted that we were probably the only people in the US of A not eating hamburgers and hotdogs on the 4th. A couple of thoughts: A) Since hamburgers and hotdogs are European in origin, and we're celebrating the day we told those guys we weren't so interested in what they thought about how we handled our business around here, should we really be eating them? B) My family has brought the EUYCNLSU&YANFWPF&CCD cookout to a new level. We've moved past hamburgers and hotdogs to embrace brisket, ribs, and bacon-wrapped chicken. You see, you take this nutritious, low-fat thing like a boneless, skinless chicken breast, and you make it taste good by soaking it in a tasty marinade and covering it in bacon.

4) I miss my Grandpa Driskell. All holidays were big days for him, but the 4th was a high holy day of sorts. He spent weeks getting ready, and by the time it got there, we had no less than a dozen watermelons and canteloupes that he had bought to find just the right one. He taught us a lot of important lessons on the 4th. A) There is no piece of meat that can't be improved by adding a little bit more wood smoke. B) The only part of the watermelon that should be eaten is the heart. We're Americans by birth and South Mobile Countians by God's good grace and as such have access to the best and cheapest watermelons around. We don't have to eat bad watermelon if we don't want to, thank you very much. C) The aforementioned watermelon should not be eaten with salt. Ever. We had a great day, but I can't get together with our family without thinking about him. I've been blessed by the impact that he made on my life.

5) I have no bathing suit. I only owned one bathing suit, and it got lost in the shuffle from Wetumpka to Bayou La Batre. I searched Sunday after church for one, or for some pair of shorts that would fit the bill, to no avail.

6) The lack of a bathing suit meant that I could follow up the first round of feasting on EUYCNLSU&YANFWPF&CCD with a vigorous nap.

7) I'm thankful to God for the blessings of liberty and I'm praying for the safety and spiritual well-being of the men and women who have and are sacrificing to insure their benefits for me and my children. In the course of my life I've seen my view of those folks change. When I was a kid, those heroes were grown-ups who performed the kinds of acts of selflessness that grown-ups are supposed to perform. When I was an older teenager, they were my friends and a source of wonder as I saw their willingness to answer the call to serve our country. Now that I'm a bit older, I see them through a fresh lens. Now some of those men and women are former students, and I see them as kids and I stand by proudly as they give so that a guy like me can sit here in the comfort of my office and type this blog.

8) I'm proud of my country. It's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than anywhere else I've ever been. We've got problems, to be sure, but our nation still stands for an awful lot of good things. God, grant us the vision and the will to serve you as beacon of liberty as long as you leave us here.