Independence Day!

For the first time in my life, I can face Independence Day with a different attitude. Of course, I will do the traditional things, fire the grill, barbecue the chicken and/or pork chops, make the macaroni salad, think about going to the next town to watch fireworks, go up to the farm market on the hill and get some fresh melon...that's right, I said WATERMELON and if I decide to sit on my front steps and eat the melon...that is exactly what I am going to do. After all, this is the age I thought I would never see and my elder family knew they'd never see...a black family...the first family of the USA... is in the White House. No, it's not the Age of Aquarius but it is the Age of Change and we have already seen some giant steps.

The word Independence is very interesting. Check out Roget's Thesaurus , the old one not the new edition. Surprisingly it says....pride,nationhood,voluntariness, self-control, self-determination, self-help, rallying device, neutrality, nonpartisanism, wealth, and finally, unrelatedness! No wonder we have trouble figuring out just what a day so named should mean to all of us. Very simply, Independence Day means so much and so little. On the eve of that day I find myself thinking that for the first time in my life, I feel a little more free to be me, grandmother, mother, wife, cousin, community elder. Why? I can look forward now to more infinite possibilities for those young people who follow in my footsteps. The phrase, "It will never happen because.... you're black, you're latino, you're appalachian...whatever" , can creep out of our working vocabulary into obsolescence.
There is a sliver of light in the walls that once formed our ghettos of the mind and that sliver will grow until it explodes with the force of fireworks for future generations.

We have much to celebrate this Independence Day but before we can celebrate, all of us need to think about which definition is the most relevant to ourselves, our lives and our posterity. When we have made that decision, let the fireworks begin!