Dear Friends:
The Independence Day holiday is associated with family for most of us, so I’ve thought a lot about that subject this week. I think many of us pray for our children’s safety for two reasons. First, we love them and want what’s best for them in all circumstances. Second, we don’t want to raise their children, as cute, smart and talented as they are!
We had our go at raising kids. It was interesting. It was challenging. It was even rewarding for the most part. We coached and kept score. We comforted them as they got stitched up. We cried with them when their friends were cruel. We stood in Santa lines and wedding lines and we enjoyed it—mostly.
For me and many of you, our child-raising days were all pre-cell phones and social media. Today, you can be criticized, belittled and demeaned by people you’ve never even met. You can see things instantly and graphically that can disturb and disrupt life and ideas in ways we would never have dreamed.
If we are pressed into service to care for grandchildren, I am only sure of one thing. She Who
Shall Not Be Named (SWSNBN) would do it all and do it well. I would quickly and quietly turn into one of the grandchildren, and I would naturally require more help than any of them. We’ve actually practiced this approach for several years now when they all come to visit. I more or less turn into a vegetable, and SWSNBN steps up and does it all. I am impressed and thankful beyond words.
Our Independence Day celebration went well, and I find myself thinking of all who pitched in to make it as normal and successful as possible. We live in a wonderful community. We live in a wonderful world! It’s a world of order. I was reminded of this on the evening of the 4th when the full moon came up, just as was promised, and the fireworks display was right on time as well.
With recent events, I look up to first responders like never before. They always step up and they always show up. Carl Schurz, a great American statesman, journalist and Civil War general once said, “Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them.”
Mayor David Ogden