JULY 4th 2011

If I had been born in another place and time I think I would have shriveled up and died.
I'm a wimp.
I am much too fond of my toothbrush, hairbrush, flip flops, camera, computer, air conditioning, crushed ice, hot water and flush toilet, to even really begin to consider doing without what is still very much out of reach for an awful lot of the world's population, though there is no guarantee that it will always be readily available or that I won't one day be forced to do without them.
Freedom was purchased for my privileged independence, paid forward to my account.
Freedom to be, think, speak, live, and pursue happiness has always been mine. I haven't got the foggiest clue what it is like to not have freedom, nor does a single person alive and born in these God blessed United States of America.
No excuses about how hard life is, we all have hard things to conquer and only so much time, we can come through or buckle under, pick one.
We each are privileged to have the doors of opportunity wide open to us.
It was expensive to establish this nation.
It is expensive to maintain the privileges of it.
It is expensive to pursue happiness.
Only the rarest most valuable things in life come with the heftiest price tags and all the money in the world cannot purchase them, sacrifice is the only acceptable currency.
Objects of desire satisfied by a material pay off lose their luster, beginning to depreciate the moment the purchase is made. What is truly valuable continually increases in value and requires constant attention, commitment, dedication, devotion and protection, without which it would be lost or stolen or removed.
Hold on, stand up, and fight for what is valuable because "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" ~Edmund Burke
I am so thankful for my position of privilege as an American in 2011!
Happy 235th Birthday America!
p.j.