United

It's hard to let the first day of a new month pass by without some kind of blog post. So here goes.
Independence Day is this weekend. Isn't that great? I am sooo one of those Norman Rockwell-Americana-I-Love-Summer people. Watermelon, corn-on-the-cob, sparklers, and star-spangled ribbons in my hair... what's not to love?

But if you watch the news these days, it seems there's less and less to love. There are lots of issues out there that are dividing us. Common ground and common sense are in short supply. Everyone has an opinion, but there are no easy answers. There's a rift.

Allow me to list a few things that still unite us:

Kindness: today I let a guy in a Jeep merge infront of me as we entered the freeway. His face was as brown as the hills he'd just come from, but his teeth were as white as a choir boy's robe. How do I know? Because that's all I could see as he turned to smile and wave. Ya gotta love the thank-you wave.

Hope: there's a woman from the Salt Lake area who's been missing for many months now. Yet every now and then, she'll get a mention on the local news because friends and family members keep organizing search parties to find her. They have hope. That can only be good. It's contagious. The founding fathers had hope. Hope for a country where men could be free. Today we still have hope. We hope that we can leave the world a little better than we found it. We hope that our children will have it better than we do. And we have it pretty darn good right now. Let's remember that every once in a while.

Ingenuity: don't you just love it when someone has a good idea? Even if the idea never comes to fruition, isn't it fun to cheer them on as they chase their dream? Everyone lucky enough to live in America has the same opportunity to act on their ideas. Is the playing field level? No. But ya gotta love a good challenge. And if it weren't for ingenuity, we wouldn't have 500-horsepower muscle cars, ice cream cones, television, vaccines, paper clips, or scones. And who doesn't love a good scone, drowning in butter and honey?

So this weekend, as you're watching the fireworks, think about everyone else watching the fireworks in their communities, and remember that we are all united.