In keeping with the holiday, I intended to write something with notes of patriotism. I though about saluting great American authors (Mark Twain comes to mind as being appropriately quotable: "Loyalty to the country always; loyalty to the government when it deserves it"--I'm looking at YOU, Congress!). But then I went outside to get something out of my car, and discovered the weather to be, at that moment, so utterly idyllic that there was nothing to be done but to take a spontaneous stroll. I wended my way around the neighborhood, and as I went these lines drifted through my head:
As the sun shines something like perfect, I let the breeze fill my mouth and return the sentiment with a sigh.
It is a day best experienced through ones skin: the subtle temperature tango of sunbeam and shade; the moody carpet of untended grass beneath the feet; the summer rough texture of leaves on fingertips, indiscriminate between welcome bloom and weed.
The bashful chuckles of the early cicadas (bashful only since they're new in town) banishes any doubt of summer.
On such a day the love affair between butterflies and the flowers becomes comprehensible in every sense.
Possessed by the perfection of the hour, I soaked in its beauty for several blockss. And consequently completely forgot about getting stuff out of my car, which necessitated a return trip once I'd gone back inside. Nothing like human nature to force Mother Nature to resume her usual place in the back of one's mind, alas. But it did remind me that there is an on-going movement to have "America the Beautiful" replace the "Star-Spangled Banner" as the U.S. national anthem, and it is one that I whole-heartedly support. There, that's my patriotic statement of the day. Now I'm going to go make lemonade and sip it in the shade of the maple tree over the lawn.
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