happy birthday america!


Happy Birthday America!

236, 237 (where's a calculator or a nine year old when I need one) years ago today our 13 original colonies approved the Declaration of Independence proclaiming our inalienable right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"- (well except for people of any color other than white and of course, women)

this was heady, important, amazing stuff and the world we know today literally formed around it.

Jefferson's masterpiece also declared "all men are created equal

(even as he owned hundreds of slaves who labored over his 5000 inherited acres)

And so America was born already doing battle with itself over what we know and what we do 

(I lived it this morning myself with a cinnamon bun)

and 236 years later we are maybe still as flawed and divided as we are inspired and connected - for everyone who is sure things are falling apart, there is someone else who knows things are coming together.

Maybe they are both right and maybe it is all a good thing.

For today, let's party like we're 236 - where's my sparkler?!
*pic stolen from suburbancampsite's blog - thanks K&C

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