First off, I should acknowledge that it's Juneteenth and that it's as good a holiday as we have. Honestly I'm surprised we haven't had it for much longer. Clearly it has much to do with the lingering shame of having had slaves, the feeling that having such a holiday would have called out negative aspects of American history as opposed to celebrating the good. Not far below the surface there's a mindset that all societies have had slavery, that it's a dog eat dog world out there, that some people are winners and others are losers, that European civilization was better anyway and that things were better when people "knew their place..." It's a slippery slope.
I'll take Juneteenth.
Summer officially begins tomorrow, but to me it almost feels like summer is half over. Graham's internship in Raleigh is at about its halfway point. The Bikeloud boys -- once more riding across the country from sea to shinging sea in honor of Be Loud! Sophie, have by now made their way to Minneapolis. Take a look at a map and tell me that's not halfway across the country.
Tomorrow Mary and I are off to Ann Arbor for a wedding party for Oliver, the eldest child of Mary's very best friend from college Kate and her husband Kim. When Mary and I got together back in early 1995, Mary had not long before attended Kate (pregnant with Oliver) and Kim's wedding in Canandaigua, where Oliver and his bride will ultimately be married in a small ceremony later in the summer, also the site of many summer vacations for us through the years and a surprising number of posts by the Grouse down through the years.
I've never been to Ann Arbor and am excited to go check it out. Sadly, our arrival will coincide with the onset of a heat wave, forknowledge of which has not enhanced Mary's week, nor, by extension, my own. Such is life.
No comments:
Post a Comment