today we celebrate our independence day

I'm home.

After a six week jaunt overseas, it's good to be back in the states. I'll go ahead and admit that a return on the eve of the 4th of July makes it a bit difficult to ease back into this place. Independence Day is America set to high contrast, with the best and worst on display side-by-side. There is much to love and celebrate about our United States - the equally valued oft competing values of unity and diversity, the vision of life and liberty, and the courage of the many men and women who have defended such idealism with their noble lives and humble deaths. There's also, though, a lot to mourn here - the ways in which the value of independence from tyranny has degraded into a value of independence from anyone else, the tarnishing of freedom as the chance to do what one wants instead of the ability to do what one ought. It's a fight to enjoy the light of a day like this one, bright as the light is, when the darkness is so stark. Celebrating the good while pursuing the better is a tough tension to hold - on one side of the spectrum it's easy to become complacent, and on the other side it's easy to lose the joy that is the seed of future hope. There is love in this tension, somewhere right between the extremes.

"A new country seems to follow a pattern. First come the openers, strong and brave and rather childlike. They can take care of themselves in a wilderness, but they are naive and helpless against men, and perhaps that is why they went out in the first place. When the rough edges are worn off the new land, businessmen and lawyers come in to help with the development - to solve problems of ownership, usually by removing the temptations to themselves. And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living. And culture can be on any level, and is." - John Steinbeck, East of Eden

It's great to be back.