I was siting at a kitchen table in a stranger's home. Our French friends, the Labourels, were entertaining us. They are visiting this month from Bordeaux, France. We'd taken them to dinner and afterward they invited us to their "home away from home." Natalie served us a delicious, French-style cake. We laughed together at my lack of understanding of the French language and how Scott now struggles at times speaking the language he was fluent in less than five years ago. We collectively adored Kevin's antics, and the way that she flashed a smile at Patrick every chance she got.
And while Scott and Kevin played with toys in the living room and Natalie started to clean up the kitchen, Patrick asked us if he could play the clarinet for us. He played a few hymns. I relaxed and smiled as I shoveled more almond cake into my mouth.
And then this man who was visiting America from halfway across the globe, this man taught me a lesson about appreciating America in a few simple notes. He started to play "The Star Spangled Banner." At times the rhythm, the melody was not quite the way we sing it at sporting events and during church meetings in July, but it was beautiful nonetheless. I was touched that he respected and admired our country enough to learn our national anthem.
And because most French people know more about American politics than American housewives like myself, I know he knew that at midnight the night before, Congress didn't make it home from the ball in time, everything turned to pumpkins, and the government that my ancestors worked so hard for shutdown.
Earlier that morning, after getting up and reading the day's headlines, I looked out the window and marveled that nothing seemed to change. Cars still zoomed past, the leaves on the trees still changed color, the trax trains passed at regular intervals.
I didn't understand. The government shut down, right? Didn't that mean America was broken? Why didn't things look broken, or at the very least, stalled? Why did everything look the same as it had the day before?
All day I worried and wondered what was going to happen, how this shutdown was going to affect me and my family and my children and grandchildren and all those I care about. How long can it last? How much damage can it do? What is going to happen?
That night, in a few simple notes, Patrick the Frenchman taught me that though the battle rages on, America hasn't ceased to exist.
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
I am not a politically savvy person, but I do know this: the government is broken. The government has ceased functioning. The government is tearing apart lives at the moment and it still remains to be seen what this repercussions this "shutdown" will have on my family. I am scared, but I haven't stopped living.
There is no doubt in my mind that our country faces a "perilous fight" at the moment. And although I haven't really followed politics since my AP government classes (sorry Mr. Rigby, I still vote though!), and I am totally confused by what is going on, and even though I am more than a little worried but not sure how to get involved or where to go from here, I can still take pride that this is the the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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| (don't mind the South Korean flag here too, it is in honor of Elder Flan's mission) |
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