Small Town Parade

We took our kids to a small town parade to celebrate the Fourth of July.  The route was short. There were no fancy floats.  Just good ol’ Texas Panhandle life at its finest.

As the parade began, I had tears on my eyes right there on Main Street.  I thought maybe it was the bagpipe music, which I adore.  Or maybe it was the whole “the days are long but the years are short” and realizing that we’ll only have a handful of these Fourth of July parades with our littles.

But as I looked around, I realized it was something different.  There, on the brick street of a little town in Texas, I realized we were all one.  No one at that parade asked the person next to them their political party.  No one argued over the Mueller probe or Stormy Daniels or the missing emails.  It did not matter who you think should be the next Supreme Court Justice or who you voted for in November.

Instead, we all wore the same colors.  We all celebrated the same holiday.  We respected the same flag.  We helped each other pick up candy.  We cheered and waved in unison as the vehicles went by.  And for a moment, it was a reminder of the best of America.  Her people, standing united as one, celebrating the freedoms we have.

Our country isn’t perfect. And there are reasons to be upset and outraged. But it was inspiring to me that, at least for one morning, everyone was able to put aside differences and problems and focus on the good.

If you ask me, perhaps next year, some folks from Washington should come on over for our parade.  I’ll bring an extra candy bag and we’ll see if they might learn a thing or two.