July 3, 2024
The first week of July is
always a week for celebration, in both my country of Canada, and in the country
on our southern border, the United States. Our national birthday is the first,
and America’s is the fourth.
We became known as the
Dominion of Canada ninety-one years after America declared themselves of nation.
There are differences between us, to be sure, but for the most part they are
not night-and-day differences, but differences of degree.
Our nation came into being through
negotiation and an act of British Parliament. America, through a revolutionary
war.
We more or less speak the same
language, and we more or less have a similar national foundational principal—democracy.
Canada is governed by a Parliamentary Government, and America by a Republic. At
the very basis of both is the concept of our nations’ people going out and
voting for those folks we want to represent us.
But here in the Ashbury
household, this month of July has always been a month of more personal
celebrations, too. My brother’s birthday was on the 1st, and yes,
you can be certain my older by ten years brother had me believe the national parade
down Main Street was for him. Then, my mother’s birthday, and later, my second son’s
was on the 5th. Our youngest and our only girl’s birthday is the 13th
of July, and David and I celebrate our wedding anniversary the next day, on the
14th. The last day of note for us in July, is my birthday, which is
on the 21st.
We used to call it “Christmas
in July”, and there were times it really felt that way, especially when it came
to our two children, who were born a year and eight days apart. And since 8
days separated son’s from daughters, it was interesting that 8 days also
separated daughter’s birthday from mine.
Now, of course, this month is
still one of celebration for us, but it is also one of commemoration. That will
never change for me, and really, other than still having my lost loved ones alive
(mother, brother and son), it never will. This is one of life’s lessons for us:
just as there are days of sweetness, there are also days of sadness, and when
those days are one and the same, they’re bittersweet.
Bittersweet is a descriptor
that can be used to describe life in general, don’t you think? And because I am
so very vexed when people lie—and even more so when those lies are celebrated—here
are some truths that I embrace.
One cannot know grief without
first knowing love, and it’s associated emotions like joy and elation and glee.
One cannot know sadness without first knowing happiness. And one cannot know
fear without first knowing peace. That is true, but what also is true, is those
statements can also be said in reverse.
And that’s apt because anyway
you look at a truth, it’s still the truth.
It could be argued that the
positive and the negative are simply opposite sides of the same coins. It can
also be argued that we need those negative experiences in our lives just as
much as we need the positive ones.
When times are tough, we grow.
Life has a purpose and that is to make us the best versions of ourselves that
we can be. It’s not to make us perfect—for we know that only God is perfect. It’s
to make us better. More compassionate, more understanding, more…. seasoned.
Older folk (like myself), and
folk who’ve lost loved ones (also like myself) will tell you, and honestly and often,
to hold your loved ones close, show them you love them every day, because you
never know when they might be taken from you.
That same advice can, conceivably,
be given with regard to the nations that we hold dear. For patriotism is, by
definition, love of country. It is love. And one of the hardest lessons life
teaches us—but also a lesson that once learned can be considered cautionary—is that
what is loved can be taken from us. If not by fate, then by those of
very ill intent.
This week, I hope we all do
more than just wave our flags and sing our anthems. This week, I hope we all
take a long, hard look at the world around us, and understand that just as love
and kindness and generosity are real, so are hate and evil and greed.
We should all act accordingly.
Love,
Morgan
https://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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