I am fascinated by the things and people that we choose to celebrate and what we choose to overlook. The United States has become such a culture of celebrity that we mark anniversaries of stars’ deaths and forget community voices that have personally touched our lives over the years.
Living in the Northeast means being exposed to many great celebrations on Independence Day. We offer reenactments of our ancestors’ battles for independence, wave the flag, ring church bells, and otherwise celebrate with food, outdoor activities, and general merriment. Along the way, we tend to single out the great leaders and overlook the multitudes who had a part in creating new ways of living in a new country, bringing new traditions to create a new identify, and doing their often quiet parts to allow those with more prominent roles to lead effectively.
For every child who learns to tie a shoe, for every young adult who graduates from middle school, high school, college or beyond, we celebrate the next step in independence. AND behind every successful step of one’s independence is an individual, family, and sometimes community that has made it possible for that journey to move forward.
As we consciously create the world we choose to live in and leave to the next generation to steward, let’s remember to sing the songs of the unsung, celebrate the contributions of the many, and recognize that independence from all kinds of tyranny—whether the personal tyranny of the mind, the powerful dominance of one person over another, or one country over another—requires more than one party to create the momentum for freedom and independence. We are all related on this planet and inextricably intertwined. Together we rise or together we fall.
On this Independence Day, as we celebrate the birth of one country and its independence from another almost two hundred forty years ago, let us look around at all the ways we actively foster the opportunities for ourselves and others to pursue our dreams. Let us look carefully at the ways we support each other to stand independently and declare who we choose to be. Let us also be mindful of the ways we make difficult or block others from the same.
Let’s celebrate the values we hold dear in creating a civil society where different views and perspectives are appreciated, not imposed. Freedom to create and be true to the highest in ourselves—not a bad reason to celebrate our independence AND our interdependence on each other to foster freedom for each individual. AND let’s remember that independence stands in the context of many interconnected pieces all doing their part to support something much bigger than the individual.
Happy Independence Day!
