Reflections on the Fourth
The Fourth of July – the birth of a nation’s independence and celebration of unification. Fireworks symbolize the explosive struggle to break free from a ruling body that had been outgrown. Birthing is never clean and tidy. It can be painfully traumatic. And then wonderfully glorious.
Based on history, there’s no glory without a fight. And freedom is hardly free. Individuation, autonomy and self-determination are American core values for some hard-earned reasons.
But what do these things mean in today’s world? We conveniently forget what was necessary to assume such values. It seems the past six months may have joggled our collective memory - but more importantly awakened a raw awareness that’s requiring a new dimension of bravery.
At the end of last year I wrote a blog highlighting some basic life lessons of the decade. Apparently 2020 wasn’t very satisfied.
The year began benign enough, then rudely interrupted by the curiously named Coronavirus, spawning a health, financial and social crisis. Suddenly we had to cancel cherished plans, restructure our daily lives and halt seeing loved ones - in the best and worst of times.
For several months we’ve been living at a distance - from life as we knew it and from each other. But we may, more importantly, be getting closer to ourselves and what we are made of.
Who are we in the midst of a pandemic? How do we do respond to the demands of a new reality? What are we willing to shed in order to be reborn? These questions aren’t only sparked by Covid-19, but by a more shameful crisis – structural and systemic racism.
This is a unique time demanding us to wear a mask in public to shield from an infectious virus and then come home and strip the mask we’ve metaphorically been fashioning for over two centuries and face a harsh truth – the freedom honored and celebrated on this day is not experienced equally.
The fourth of July has been a bright and shiny holiday, but let’s not be blinded by the light – This July 4th of 2020 is quite different – and it should be.
If this acknowledgment is difficult to come around to, it’s okay. This is not to dim the limited excitement we can extract during a time already riddled with restrictions. But we can do more than fire up the grill – we can get fired up about finally recognizing and actively rejecting the injustice and indignity that has been swept behind our waving flag.
As Americans, we know too well that significant change and growth rely on struggle. It’s part of our unwavering pride. Let’s accept the growing pains and lessons of the past six months – appreciating the pause, practicing patience and understanding privilege – and rebuild a nation that is yearning to be reborn.