I honor freedom (mine, yours, ours), the people who came before us the claim it, and the people who died to preserve it.

What a gorgeous, imperfect, awesome land we Americans live in! I am thankful. And yes, I do take it for granted, many days, being born so privileged into a land so rich with beauty, creativity, bravery and prosperity. How can we not forget how lucky we are, when life is this good?

But today, of all days, I think about “independence” with more reverence, gratitude and humility than usual. What can I do with this freedom which is my birthright? Am I using it to make the world a better place? Who knows. I can only hope I’m living a life worthy of the flag that flies above me.

There’s a recklessness to this great, sprawling freedom we Americans enjoy.

As in the Cole Porter song, Don’t fence Me In, I can “wander over yonder and gaze at the moon til I lose my senses.”  Kinda makes me feel like there are no limits, like I’m some kind of untethered, space cowgirl, an idea so juicy and lovely I want to howl.

But this mythic west — this privilege — is cradled within a country that I love, bound by laws and ideas (think of that — mere ideas, powerful ideas!) that comfort, rattle, embolden, or frustrate its citizens, each in turn. We are united, like one, big, dysfunctional, audacious family. Most of us dare to feel safe here, which is our greatest gift, and our most crippling, all at once.

How I love this land, and this little blue planet. May freedom wave forever.

And God bless us, everyone.