freedigitalphotos
Even though it was a 100 degree day, we took my dad out for a much needed diversion to see the Carmelfest 4th of July parade. My father is visiting for the week and has a broken ankle, so his mobility is a challenge. Needless to say, he’s getting a little cabin fever because he can’t participate in his usual activities, and my dad is pretty active. He just wants to know when he can get back on his tractor to take care of the many lawns he mows in his subdivision.
The parade was an unexpected true pleasure. I noticed a couple of things. 1. Carmel is not as diverse as I thought it was. I’m not sure if I should really be surprised about that. 2. High School bands like Broadripple were more contemporary and ‘hip’ –at least I enjoyed watching them more with their pop beats and dance moves. 3. Men are never too old for toys, as exemplified by mini-corvettes, MURAT motorcycles, and wheely popping mowing tractors. 4. Veterans are connected to eacth other, no matter when they served.
My father was a Marine back in the late 50′s. As the marine float went by, the marines recognized my father, who was saluting them with his hat (containing a Marine emblem). You could see the connection immediately between them. The respect and understanding. I could feel it standing next to him and it almost brought tears to my eyes. It occurred to me that parades and recognition of our history is really about our connection to each other. We are all connected and we all share more than we know.
‘When we look at ourselves as Americans, we don’t look at our differences. We’re not Republicans or Democrats, we’re not different religions or races, we don’t need to know our sexual orientations. We can just be connected as Americans.
Now I’m watching Independence Day on AMC. Our next step is to be connected as human beings and stop separating ourselves by countries—but that’s off in the future and I’m sure that scares some people. Just something to think about.
