Thursday, July 18, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
FOURTH OF JULY
Yesterday, July 3rd, was sunny and hot - today it is cloudy and cold. I shouldn’t let the weather change my feelings about such an important holiday, the holiday that celebrates the founding of our country, and our civil liberties.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...
Substitute “people” for “men” and you have a perfect idea, an idea to build a life, or a country, on. The news is full of events that occur because people deny this idea, because one group of people hates another. When people act in accordance with this idea it seldom makes news. However, leaders who follow this idea are the ones who make history: Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama.
Recently it was disclosed just how much of our email, our phone calls, our lives, the government is monitoring. It may be necessary to protect us from terrorism, but I am unconvinced. Anyone who remembers The Pentagon Papers will have a hard time fully trusting our government. Most people seem to put their safety above their freedom. I think this is dangerous, and mistaken,
Last week my son Colin turned thirty. That day we ate salmon and drank sangria, and the next day we drove to the Olympic Peninsula and cooked clams, mussels, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn over an open charcoal fire. It was ninety degrees in Seattle that day, but in our campground the wind was gusting and it was only sixty five degrees. We didn’t bring the right clothes and we were all cold. Only our grandson Oran seemed to be unaffected by the temperature - he ran everywhere, hunted for berries, jumped into any water he could find, and kept himself warm.
Thirty years ago I remember sitting at my desk in my office in Aruba when my dad called me from Portland to say that I had another son, that Nonnie had had a C-section and that she and Colin were doing well. Up to that moment I didn’t know if we would have a second son or a daughter. I was so excited and happy, and a little sad that I wasn’t there. Two weeks later I did fly to Portland and Nonnie and the boys met me at the airport. Derek came running down the concourse saying “Dad, dad - do you want to see my new brother?” So I held Colin for the first time outside the arrival gate in the airport while hundreds of approving passengers walked by.
Thirty years later much has changed - Colin has grown up and security at the airport makes it impossible to meet arriving passengers at the gate - Colin has his own son, and every young mother knows the gender of her baby after the first ultrasound.
I hope you had a good holiday!
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...
Substitute “people” for “men” and you have a perfect idea, an idea to build a life, or a country, on. The news is full of events that occur because people deny this idea, because one group of people hates another. When people act in accordance with this idea it seldom makes news. However, leaders who follow this idea are the ones who make history: Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama.
Recently it was disclosed just how much of our email, our phone calls, our lives, the government is monitoring. It may be necessary to protect us from terrorism, but I am unconvinced. Anyone who remembers The Pentagon Papers will have a hard time fully trusting our government. Most people seem to put their safety above their freedom. I think this is dangerous, and mistaken,
Last week my son Colin turned thirty. That day we ate salmon and drank sangria, and the next day we drove to the Olympic Peninsula and cooked clams, mussels, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn over an open charcoal fire. It was ninety degrees in Seattle that day, but in our campground the wind was gusting and it was only sixty five degrees. We didn’t bring the right clothes and we were all cold. Only our grandson Oran seemed to be unaffected by the temperature - he ran everywhere, hunted for berries, jumped into any water he could find, and kept himself warm.
Thirty years ago I remember sitting at my desk in my office in Aruba when my dad called me from Portland to say that I had another son, that Nonnie had had a C-section and that she and Colin were doing well. Up to that moment I didn’t know if we would have a second son or a daughter. I was so excited and happy, and a little sad that I wasn’t there. Two weeks later I did fly to Portland and Nonnie and the boys met me at the airport. Derek came running down the concourse saying “Dad, dad - do you want to see my new brother?” So I held Colin for the first time outside the arrival gate in the airport while hundreds of approving passengers walked by.
Thirty years later much has changed - Colin has grown up and security at the airport makes it impossible to meet arriving passengers at the gate - Colin has his own son, and every young mother knows the gender of her baby after the first ultrasound.
I hope you had a good holiday!
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