A Little Preliminary Horsing Around
So, America. Happy birthday to you. You are now 250 years old, which is halfway to 500. We still have plenty of time to fix all of this.
Don’t let the astonishing fact of commies getting elected interfere with your celebrations. That is like coming down with a case of the shingles, but you still get your birthday presents.
Whatever you do, don’t lose your cheeky ebullience. That is the sort of thing that makes all the difference. That’s the secret sauce, right there.
Be the kind of American that the European World Cup tourists think you are.
This evening, be sure to set off the kind of fireworks that the House of Hanover would have banned as being in poor taste, not to mention uncouth and unsafe.
Set your AC settings to a level that Brussels would not tolerate for a hot minute. And I mean hot minute.
Make sure to keep calling it soccer.
I was 23-years-old on America’s 200th birthday, and am in a position to remember the implications of all that. What that means is that at that time I had been alive for 11.5% of our nation’s history. I am now 73 on our 250th birthday. That means that I have now been alive for 29.2% of our nation’s timeline, almost a third. Gaining on it! I will get to a third when I am around 89. Check in with me then and I will tell you exactly what I think. I will be done holding back by that point.
So treat American boomers with the respect that all walking history books deserve.
A Serious Turn
Now I acknowledged at the outset that I was leading off with some horsing around. But never forget that all such horsing around is nothing more than a decorated deadly seriousness.
But then there are other occasions, such as in the second half of a blog post, say, when you dispense with all of that and just say it straight. Well . . . as straight as I know how.
The central cultural peril we face is the deadly sin of envy. Envy lies at the root of virtually every political trouble we have, and we have many. The antidote is therefore gratitude, and it needs to be 100 proof gratitude. Now the only place you can get that kind of gratitude is from the distilleries of Heaven, made with peat from the salt marshes of Paradise. We need something smoky enough to burn away every form of envy, the kind of envy that loves to hide under the human tongue, like the malicious bacteria it is. Roll that drink around in your mouth, and let it do all of the grateful work.
So spend the Fourth being grateful. We are commanded in Scripture to be grateful in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18), and for all circumstances (Eph. 5:20). That include the cafeteria food fight that is modern American politics. Be grateful in it and be grateful for it. This is your opportunity to throw jello for Jesus. Gratitude is the theme of our Thanksgiving holiday, of course, but if you love your nation, and want to fight for your nation, then gratitude needs to be brought front and center on this holiday as well.
The reasons for gratitude don’t need to run in any particular order, just so long as it begins with thanks to the Father for adopting us as His children, and ends with thanks to the Son for bringing us to the Father. After that, order them how you please, but make sure that some position of prominence be given to your people—natural affection is the gluten that holds the societal loaf together. Include them all, from the wife of your youth, to the erratic uncle, down to the dog who hates fireworks.
Before sitting down to write this, I did some early morning mowing. I like to mow before it gets too hot, and I had about half an acre to attend to. Among other reflections as I was riding around this morning, I was grateful to God that I live in a country that makes all kinds of stuff that works. Then I took a shower, and that worked, and opened up this computer program, and that worked, and then I embedded a song from Spotify, and that worked. Stuff that works.
I am so grateful for the size of the United States. A Brit can fly from Heathrow for just over an hour and get off in Paris, or for just under two hours and get off in Berlin. A Texan can fly over two hours flying from El Paso to Houston. And for some reason, that reminds me of the story of the Texas rancher who went to visit his cousin in Vermont who was an apple farmer—but his orchards seemed unconscionably tiny. So the Texas cousin mentioned that he could get up at 5 am, hop in his truck and drive for five hours straight, and still be driving on his ranch property. “Yeah, I know how that is,” his cousin replied, shaking his head. “I used to have a truck like that.” Speaking of stuff that works.
I am also grateful for the people who laugh at my jokes.
Quite apart from partisan politics, I am profoundly grateful for the Anglo Saxon legal tradition. I am grateful for all of it that was written down, but I am especially grateful for those aspects of this legal tradition that have worked their way into the hearts and minds of the people—the things that are etched into our unwritten and quietly assumed constitution. I am talking about freedom of speech, the Electoral College, separation of powers, the 2nd Amendment, and an appropriately low view of the House of Representatives. You want to keep that sort of thing contained.
Let me bring this back to the Europeans, and finish with that. One of the things that was so delightful about watching those videos is that it revealed two important things. The first is how much we take for granted, how many of our blessings are invisible to us. The second is the realization that a good half of our societal troubles are the result of gaslighting by the media. So budget for that. See for yourself.
And do it with gratitude.