It is the day after an uneventful 4th of July. Everything was cancelled so there was nothing to attend. Because we have been in an area where there is a strong uptick of Covid Cases, we have now been in lockdown just about 4 months. FOUR MONTHS! To deal with this isolation and to keep our minds oiled, my husband and I have been looking for things to do and, boy oh boy, have we ever got a lot of projects done! Things are looking very, very good these days around our house. I think we have painted everything in sight! This would be the perfect time to sell the house, but, where we would go in this time of Covid-19? Where would we go at our age? So, we just sit back and enjoy the product of our hard work! The physical labor keeps us occupied and prevents the inevitable restlessness that comes from being idle for too long!

We really miss our kids and grandkids. It is very difficult to look at pictures of families gathering in areas of the country where covid hasn’t shown its nasty, killing side! I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for someone who has to live through this Pandemic alone. I see pictures of family members going to see their loved one through a window of a nursing home. I hear stories of loved ones with dementia getting worse because of the isolation. I hear of people who are wringing their hands over financial distress because of no work or businesses being closed down! It is a very tough time for so many, and the only way to get through it is one day at a time! Easier said than done!

We watched CBS Sunday Morning tv show this morning and there was one segment about immigrants who were being sworn in as U.S. citizens in their cars as a way to socially distance. A few were interviewed and their joy at becoming a U.S. citizen was on full display. It was palpable, even through the television screen. One man said that he was so happy he finally had made it to “Paradise”! It made me want to weep to see such gratitude and hope and positivity for the future. He and his family had made it to the “promised land”.

In contrast, as I watched this, in my minds eye I could see our politicians being vicious with each other, berating, demeaning, and downright nasty. I watched what started out as peaceful protests turning into full-scale riots with enormous destruction of property as well as looting and murders. Isn’t gratitude for life in the U.S. beautiful to see in public arenas? America the beautiful! I can fully understand the peaceful protests and I support those completely, but the vandalism, fires, and looting are not constructive to supporting any cause.

I have seen so many awful video clips of bad behavior where people are doing nasty things to one another…a man pushing over a very old woman as she is walking along a sidewalk which causes her to fall and hit her head on a fire hydrant. I see another man hitting a very old man with his own cane for no reason whatsoever other than meanness. I have seen a whole host of instances where people are calling the police just as a way to intimidate another person. Such meanness of spirit! Where does this come from in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Why is this happening?

So, I wonder to myself…Is this rooted in the Pandemic or is it the root of sin within people? Perhaps it is a combination of both? People seem to find any number of reasons to argue with and harass each other. Our Next Door Neighbor web site always has a list of people partaking in a war of words with one another. These days they argue about mask or no mask, opening the society or not, debates about what constitutes a too large gathering and why people are not properly distancing from each other. The debate itself is fine, but the demeaning way they communicate with one another is not!

For my part, I absolutely despise any kind of contention. I feel that laws were made to keep us from becoming a chaotic society. Laws and rules calm people because people know what to expect, whether they agree with the law or not! When laws are disregarded, people become agitated because things feel out of control and out of order.

I wish American citizens could go back to feeling the joy and pride of being part of the greatest society ever known to mankind. I think that because we have grown up in this world, and have never lived under an oppressive regime, we have come to take our freedoms for granted, and in some cases we abuse these freedoms!

I pray a lot for our country and our people as a whole. We are living in some turbulent times and I doubt we will ever again see the innocent times in which we grew up!

Right now, we live in a world of our own, in our house, on our property, just the two of us! Thankfully our hunger for human touch is met with a hug from the one we live with. We are getting to know each other in a wholly unfiltered way. This is what happens when you live with someone 24/7 for months on end. Fortunately for us, we like each other. That said, we still miss our old lives. We miss our family, our friends, our church family, our Dr, our library, our jobs, our everything….our life as it once was! Independence day 2020 will never be forgot! I wonder now if we will see each other at the next holiday or if we will do that alone as well? We will do what it takes because we want to live to be with our grandkids and kids as they move forward in life.

I am grateful for this life, this country, our Amazing God AND the freedom to worship in our own way! I often remind myself that MOST people ARE good! Most people are patriotic and most people realize the value and privilege of living in this beautiful country. The majority of us are willing to do what it takes to preserve the Union left to us, bought and paid for with the blood of millions of citizens who gave up their lives to defend our freedoms! Out of respect to them, and respect for our children’s futures, we really need to band together because it IS true that United we stand and divided we fall! Out of gratitude, “We the people” need to unite in our desire to protect what we have inherited, and to remember the enormous cost of lives that were taken in order to achieve this!

Happy 5th of July! God bless America!