This morning I watched the news broadcast on all of the
preparations for the Peachtree Road Race, a fourth of July tradition here in
Atlanta. I’ve met plenty of people
through the years in this town who take great pride in running it every year;
even during inclimate weather. The event and those who partake remind me once
more of the drive and pleasure that resides in being part of something bigger
then oneself; something meaningful.
When
we celebrate the founding day of this great nation, a little bit of me falls
under the power of that gravity as well; just as my wife, a native of
Catalonia, beams at telecasts of rallies with thousands of her countrymen gathering together in the struggle for independence. We live
in a great age; an age to make a difference.
Gone for most of most of my countrymen the struggle to meet our daily needs to
survive. That is not to say there is no lack; for lack is a perception of thwarted desires.
For all the negative news concerning this country, and the problems paraded across the
media in order to generate interest, one thing that is hardly ever discussed to any great depth is its
awesome potential. For good or ill we
are a nation that embraces self sufficiency as a cherished value; and who demands the
freedom to try; to become a crucial part
~ of something wonderful. I close with a
quote from Willa Cather; a woman who captured the zeal in getting real.
The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers...I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.”
― Willa Cather, My Ántonia
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