I woke up on this beautiful summer day and decided to read the full text of the declaration. It is truly an amazing statement and always leaves me with the question: ” What were they thinking?”

I mean to go up against the 900 pound gorilla of the day, and actually pull it off, is truly one of the great stories in human history.

I’ve posted it on my site, HERE, and below is my short summary using the document’s actual prose. …”we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  WOW! When’s the last time you heard something like that?

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America

WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

…we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

May first is always a special day for me. It was on that day, nearly 50 years ago, that I was hit by a car. I usually try and make it a special day and use it as a day of remembrance and thanksgiving. I guess I was pretty lucky to get out in almost one piece.

My family had moved to Newport, RI and I was staying with my grandparents to polish off second grade. We were visiting relations one evening, and some young kid was barreling down the street and the next thing I know, I was flying through the air in what seemed lie slow motion. I vaguely remember my grandfather screaming at the top of his lungs and the ambulance siren as we went to the hospital.

I ended up spending a couple of months in the hospital with the main injury being a compound fracture of the femur.  After, a short hunger strike (another story, another time) I spent most of the rest of the summer in a full cast in my grandparents’ living room and listening to the Rex Sox on the radio with my grandfather.

The videos below are the video diary of our trip on May 1. They include: An Indian wedding procession, a meeting with a congressman, picking up a group of Franciscan monks hitchhiking. And, at the very end of the day, I was in the art co-op in Shellburne and and overheard a group of the artists, who were behind the counter having dinner together, talking about how they were hit by cars as children. (Insert your own spooky music here!)

May 1, 2010 Videos

Part 1: The Indian Wedding Procession

On our way out of town, we found this Indian wedding procession in the parking lot of the Royal Plaza Hotel over in Marlborough. The groom rides a horse with much fanfare to meet his bride to be who is waiting for her family. Now this is wedding!

Part 2: Davidian Fams in Northborough, with a 1914 Model T and Congressman James McGovern

We decided to stop for a quick bite at Davidian Farms in Northborough and saw a really cool 1914 Model T and met Congressman James McGovern and his district Representative, Kathlen Polanowicz.

Part 3: Bits and Pieces

A few short clips from the trip with photovoltaics in Ashburnham, the Toy Town horse, a historic plaque in Hinsdale, NH and some hawks caught circling around.

Part 4: Our Franciscan Hitchhiking Friends

We picked up these folks hitchhiking in southern Vermont and drove them to their destination. They were traveling from Lawrence, MA to their retreat for a week.

Part 5: Dinner in Shelburne Falls

After dropping off our new friends we headed back east and stopped at the bridge of flowers and had a meal.

I have a friend who once advised me that one should make all of one’s major life decisions in a cemetery.  I’m not sure if I entirely buy that, but I must admit that I have always been drawn to them.

Over the school April vacation, Sam and I made a trip down to the DC area via Gettysburg. I also got a chance to visit my parents gravesite at Arlington, so actually most of the time that I was not visiting with family, I was at the cemetery, It did generate some thoughts.

Sacrifice:

You can’t help but be struck by the sacrifice that past generations have made for this country. It is truly amazing and humbling. There is an amazing story of sacrifice here on one of our last trips to DC for Mom’s funeral service. A young man, just out of college killed in Vietnam just weeks about his wife’s first pregnancy.

Humility:

The Gettysburg Address is generally considered one of the jewels of American prose. The keynote speaker of the day, Edward Everet, was an amazing orator and was a Secretary of State, Congressman, Senator, President of Harvard, and Governor of Massachustts. Lincoln only spoke for two minutes at the end (Everett spoke for over 2 hours!) and most people were not even aware that he was there much less delivered a speech.

Everett wrote Lincoln a note after the speech and immediately knew what had happened. In part, he wrote:  “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

Now that’s amazing humility and recognition of that is now considered a given, but at the time, not so much.

Bronze statue of Lincoln at Gettysburg National Park

I just heard that a beloved young person in my orbit lost a beloved teacher. This is for you Jordy!