Across the street, my neighbors were putting up red, white, and blue streamers, a shiny mylar garland over the garage door, and hanging up their American flag. It’s festive and celebratory. It got me to thinking how I would choose to observe the holiday this year. It’s a special year, at 250 years, and I like to honor milestone birthdays of anyone, including my home country.
In recent years, many of us have felt sad, or worse, about the state of our nation. Many ideals and gems have been trampled. How can I celebrate? But then, what if I personally were in very poor health? Wouldn’t I still want to have a party to lift my spirits, to enjoy the company of those I love? Yes, I would. And I’d choose activities that felt meaningful.
Events in the last few days have added up to a pleasing collection of ways to commemorate this national birthday. Tuesday: a lecture by composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate sharing his unique blend of European and Native American influences. Don’t worry about appropriation, he advises, our culture is rich with input from diverse cultures. We sat in the University of Oregon’s Native American Longhouse to hear his insights and performance singing with a turtle shell rattle. Thursday: concert of Dvorak”s New World Symphony and Tate’s (above) American Indian Symphony, with the chorus singing in a sequence of five different indigenous languages on topics such as thunder, wind, renewal, running, drumming, and a remembrance of ancestors who live in the clouds.
Then Friday my sweetie and I chased a sale at a local plant nursery for a replacement tree for one in our yard that had died. I’m sure I’ve shared before a quote from author Don Schneider, “Civilization thrives when elders plant trees.” Yup, we’d like to help civilization thrive. And we hope to stay alive long enough to enjoy the persimmons from the tree. We also came home with another blueberry bush, and this one was named “Liberty.” Ha! Perfect.
Saturday, the real holiday, began with walking with our usual group. Then over to the plaza of the Old Federal Courthouse in Eugene to “join the American Friends Service Committee, and people nationwide, to stand against authoritarianism and commit to a future built on peace and justice for all.” We were grateful that the chain link fence around the building and grounds had just been removed. This was a silent, Quaker-style gathering. I began my thoughts by drawing a circle to encompass the people sitting in the group and wish all of us well. Then my imagined circle spiraled outward to the folks with signs on the street corner and soon, to send kind thoughts to those who honked their horns in support as they drove past. And then peace to the drivers who yelled “f—k you” or gunned their engines. There were not many of them.
Feeling experimental, I widened my circle to the whole town. Next thing, I’d stretched to the coast and the mountains. Well, why not to the next mountain range, and the next? And to the next ocean? If my circles extended all the way around the world, I muse, they would meet at some point and create a vesica piscis, the egg-shaped or fish-shaped space at the point where to equal circles intersect.
Back at home, I looked up the symbolism of the vesica piscis, which shows up in the sacred geometry, art, and folk lore many cultures. There are numerous answers, which I’ll summarize into creation, healing, and balance of opposing forces (you can look it up). Happy meaningful birthday, United States of America. I had a juicy time celebrating. And thank you to my neighbors, who sparked my week of thought-adventure. And thank you to the neighborhood, who did not spark a wild fire.
