know enough to be free...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. I am writing after a night in the tent back-yard camping with my children-the bones are getting old!

Many thanks to Peacebang for recent nice words and to Kari, Sian and Emma for their input on the use of this blog-your comments are much appreciated!

Every July 3rd, my family takes me to Concord, MA for my birthday. It is Mecca for me and this year our trip included a short canoe trip on the Sudbury River. The sun was out for the first time in days and it was truly beautiful.

Some words this morning from eminent Concordian Ralph Waldo Emerson taken from a lesser known essay, "Perpetual Forces." They strike me as appropriate this day after our national birthday...

"All our political disasters grow as logically out of our attempts in the past to do without justice, as the sinking of some part of your house comes of defect in the foundation. One thing is plain ; a certain personal virtue is essential to freedom ; and it begins to be doubtful whether our corruption in this country has not gone a little over the mark of safety, so that when canvassed we shall be found to be made up of a majority of reckless self-seekers. The divine knowledge has ebbed out of us and we do not know enough to be free."

Blessings