For me, July 3rd is July 4th personified. July 3rd, 130 years ago a baby boy was born to a woman in central Italy whose husband was working in Utah. Joseph, the newborn was my grandfather. I only knew him for nineteen years and he was the most patriotic man that I have ever known. He loved this country, his adopted nation. He left Italy when the first World War began and came to America to live out his dream. When the war grew to involve our nation he willingly went and fought. He nearly died in France. After he returned home with a limp he would always say that he would go again.
I remember during the Vietnam war hearing him say (as a man of seventy five years) that he would go and fight if they needed him to. He may have been born in Italy, but his heart was American through and through.
Happy Independence Day!
May you be awestruck by the notion of freedom today.
Blessings!
.jpg)