– – Holidays are made with good friends and good food – –
As a child, it was my family tradition to have watermelon at our annual fourth of July picnic. After the sun would set in to the sea, we would rally around my Dad who was always busy getting the fireworks prepared for the fantastic community display. While that was impressive and the company of friends was fun, my fondest memories were not of the man made spectacle but of Mother Nature’s natural fruit.
I remember looking forward to the fourth for days in advance in apprehension of the sweet treat. There were times we would drive around the island all day long before we might find ourselves one fit for the occasion. As an adult, I have come to appreciate how important it was to be with friends and family too. While I would not want to forego the former, the latter has its own special sentiment. Crystallized in time, these memories have formed how I celebrate the occasion. No matter where I will be or with whom, I will have a belly full of watermelon and a big grin to boot.
However you celebrate the fourth this year, may you be filled with the seeds of watermelon if you so choose and with seeds of gratitude for living in America where most everyone enjoys access to clean water, fresh food and education. There are many who will never know the taste of celebration or of sweet fruit. We are among the luckiest people in the world to live in a country such as this. Here is to freedom, to speak, to read, to write, to be, to eat any food of our choosing, to shop where we like, to worship as we see fit, to work at a job we desire, to marry whom we love, to choose our friends, to make choices for our health, to live a rewarding life where we can dream and dream big. May you always remember as Americans we are fortunate to say this is our birthright. May you stand for freedom for your brothers and sisters and respect their choices over their bodies as they may be confronted with conditions that elude you, that you would never wish upon yourself. Our rights to maintain choice to choose what is best for us is part of the fabric this wonderful country was founded upon. Choose empathy over opinion.
“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge.
It requires no accountability, no understanding.
The highest form of knowledge is empathy,
for it requires us to suspend our egos
and live in another’s world.
It requires profound purpose
larger than the self kind of understanding.”
– Plato
I will be full of both watermelon and gratitude this fourth of July, a day that celebrates our freedom and our independence. I hope you will too. May your fourth be filled with laughter and love and may every day that follows be filled with light. Happy Birthday America. Let’s honor her right and celebrate freedom and independence for all.
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