As it is a special holiday, we are the United States of America, the most misunderstood country in the world. Yes, we make mistakes, sometimes huge ones, and no, we’re not perfect, though some of our politicians and business people and entertainment people would like to make the world think we are–they’re the ones who create the image of the United States as aggressor, as colonialist, as imperialist.

But we who are the United States are its people, those who live in the neighborhoods and the towns who try to help our neighbors, who take pride in our country and its ideals, and who do our best every day to maintain the dreams and visions of our forefathers.

We contribute greatly to the world. Technologically, we give a lot. Spiritually, we give a lot. We provide a model of democracy that has worked for almost two and a quarter centuries–a long-running experiment that has succeeded so far where others have failed. Financially, we aid many countries in distress because of economic crises or natural disasters. We send people and doctors and rescue workers to those natural disasters. And people from all over the world send their children to American colleges, for they know that the higher educational system here, despite all the flaws that we all know about, is still the best in the world.

We live, we dream, we breathe, we hope, we love. We grieve when violence gets out of hand, we laugh when we see something funny. We are human beings, and we’re doing our best in an unforgiving world.

The United States of America is not the political machine of the newspapers, not the ultra-violent society portrayed in newspapers or Hollywood productions, not the super-selfish businessmen who will do anything they can for profit. Yes, we have those people among us, but who doesn’t? We are America–you and I, the common people, and our power is in our love, in our sense of community, and in our hope for a better tomorrow.

When Americans say that they love their country, they mean not only that they love the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. They mean that they love an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a person can draw the breath of self-respect.

I have been absent this holiday while spending time with my husband’s family who are now very much OUR family. It was great seeing my niece and godchild, Kristin, the one injured in the car accident several months ago who almost died and see where she is today. We also spent time with her young 15 year old brother who is by no means little for he is six feet seven inches tall, my second godchild. Of course their parents were around as well which was nice for it has been forever since we had visited with them as in just talking and enjoying it. We also got to visit with Carl’s brother and his wife and of course his mom and dad who I love as my own.

I close with these thoughts It is a glorious privilege to live, to know, to act, to listen, to behold, to love. To look up at the blue summer sky; to see the sun sink slowly beyond the line of the horizon; to watch the worlds come twinkling into view, first one by one, and the myriads that no person can count. The universe is white with them; and you and I are here where Life Is Simply Good.