Sparklers, watermelon, spirited games of croquet, watching fireworks (especially the sparkly ones that look like diamonds in the sky), cozy blankets strewn on the lawn, patriotic accents, picnics, paper plates, flags waving, burgers and brats, potato salad, apple pie, ultimate frisbee** (story below), weddings, warmth, friends and family gathered, smiles, laughter...Happy Independence Day!
Today marks the anniversary of a funny occurrence that was later printed up as a story in our local paper...
12 years ago, my high school friends and I went out to a local town's fireworks display, held at a Rev. War battle site. At that time, we were really big into playing ultimate frisbee and had fierce competitions that would go on for hours. We arrived at the fireworks site and parked in a nearby neighborhood, realizing upon parking that we had accidentally left our frisbees at home. Some folks were sitting on their front lawn, so we approached and asked to borrow a frisbee. They kindly obliged and we were happily on our way. The game was a rough one and no sooner had we engaged in play, but the frisbee took a bad angle and snapped on the grass. We were done for the evening. Later after the display, a few of us realized we had no frisbee to give back to the owner and began to scrounge for change and money to reimburse. We found a random piece of paper and scribbled an apology note, leaving $2.75 on their porch (all we could find among three of us--pathetic!) and heading on our way. We gave no thought of it until seeing an article in the local section of our Ohio paper... The frisbee owners had written in, so grateful for our honesty and willingness to own up to our blunder. While the incident hadn't been a big deal to us--you borrow something, you return it; the integrity our parents had taught us... To the frisbee owners, it was remarkable. We had restored some of their hope in youth (and had gotten a front page article to boot). Pretty cool.
It was a tale that warmed my heart so. One good deed can go a long way in the heart of another. That's my lesson for this holiday.
Happy Independence Day and God bless.
1 comment:
While you had your parents, I had this same message instilled in me by the wildly funny and tremendously enlightening movie, "Evan Almighty." Who can easily forget the prophetic acronym ARK - Act of Random Kindness - so affectionately sounded by God? Nobody is the answer, B-Mama. Nobody can forget it. Especially not this body. May the true God (not Morgan Freeman, silly!) bless the creators of that hallowed movie and all the actors who graced its screen. Oh, and one last thing...DO THE DANCE!!!!
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