Life, Liberty, Happiness

Happy Holiday To You!

I hope that this past week has been good to you.  Be careful with the fireworks this week - let’s keep all our fingers attached, OK?  The steady rain this morning has Nova curled up on the couch, wondering when we will get to go for a walk.

I heard a chorus of Red-Tailed Hawks screeching across the street yesterday. The parents and fledglings all seemed to be mightily engaged in this thing called life.  It’s hard for me to distinctly identify it, but I believe that the fledgling that left the nest early (the focus of last week’s newsletter) is doing well and probably flying now.

The Independence Day holiday, coupled with this past week’s rulings handed down from the U.S. Supreme Court, have me thinking about how the American Experiment is faring these days.  Back in 1776, the signers of the Declaration of Independence had some very legitimate beefs with King George III.  In addition to serving as a detailed airing of the American colonies’ grievances against the king, the document declared that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I have little doubt that U.S. citizens generally enjoy a high degree of unfettered access to these three unalienable rights, but our society is far from perfect in making them equally available to every citizen.  Even if I felt capable of articulating a coherent analysis of the SCOTUS rulings, the fact is that I have cookouts to attend, salads to make, baby back ribs to smoke, and happiness to be pursued, just as our founders wanted.  So I’m not going completely down the judicial analysis rabbit hole this weekend.

But I will offer this for your consideration as we approach Independence Day:  Given the diversity of our citizenry, the best we can hope for is a society that works hard to maintain a balance in the dynamic tensions that arise from rights that sometimes compete with each other.  Very few of us, given the opportunity to “turn the knobs” on the Dashboard of Liberty (I just invented this, but you get the idea), would land on the exact same settings.

Some of us would award a tiny fetus more right to Life, at the expense of Liberty (and possibly Happiness) for its mother.  Some people feel that same-sex couples should not be afforded the same Liberty to marry as male/female pairings.  A fair summation of my guiding mantra is simply “To Live and Let Live.”  There are no settings on the Dashboard of Liberty that will please everyone.  We will always have some measure of displeasure/disappointment with the rulings of the highest court in the land.  If we accept this basic truth, and are a little more respectful of everyone’s right to hold views that differ from our own, we will tiptoe ever so slowly in the direction of forming a more perfect union.

It is undeniable that America has come a long way.  More Americans enjoy equality, liberty, freedom and happiness to higher degrees than ever before.  Yet if we were to reboot our lives, restarting the game of Life In America as a different character, aren’t there some options you would prefer, and others you would actively avoid?  Until the day comes when we would all gladly restart the game as any possible character, we have more work to do.

Light the grill.  Slice the watermelon.  Ride the rides.  Let’s have fun this week!  Then it’s back to work.

Sunday Supper
Last week Lori I watched season two of The Bear, streaming on Hulu.  It made me hungry for a good, slow-cooked Italian Beef Sandwich.  This recipe can feed a crowd, and may be a good alternative to grilling in the rain.  This Crunchy Cabbage Salad would be a great complement to the sandwiches (Lori and I took this one to a potluck last night and highly endorse it).

Sunday Music
This performance by Mandolin Orange (now re-named Watchhouse) is a lovely bit of bluegrass to enjoy on this gray morning.  This husband-wife duo, Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz are based on Chapel Hill, North Carolina and have been performing together since 2010.  Enjoy!

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Neal