4th of July

With our nation’s birthday just about a week away, and so many challenges facing our culture, I feel like I want to write something about it, but am averse to the usual sort of cliches, and well aware of my own limitations. So instead I’ll share these lyrics from singer/songwriter Ben Shive. Whatever your personal beliefs may be (and sometimes I am not even sure of my own), I do hope that they allow for at least the possibility of permanence, and transcendance.

The first star of the evening
Was singing in the sky
High above our blanket in the park

And by the twilight’s gleaming
On the 4th day of July
The city band played on into the dark

And then a canon blast
A golden flame unfolding
Exploded in a momentary bloom

The pedals fell and scattered
Like ashes on the ocean
As another volley burst into the blue

But the first star of the evening never moved

We stood in silence
The young ones and the old
As the bright procession passed us by

A generation dying
Another being born
A long crescendo played out in the sky

Yeah

This nation, indivisible
Will perish from the Earth
As surely as the leaves must change and fall

And the band will end the anthem
To dust she will return
So the sun must set on all things, great and small

But the first star of the evening
Will outlive them all