The 250th celebration of the United States has me reflecting on the Bicentennial of my childhood, when our teenage neighbors painted their basement cinder blocks red, white, and blue, and my brother won a prize in our local parade for skateboarding in a tricorner hat and breeches. The downstairs light switch in our house displayed the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and a giant bald eagle carving hung over the fireplace.

It would be easy to dismiss these images as nostalgic long-ago love of country, a faraway time never to be seen again. But this week, I got to sing “This Land is Your Land” along with thousands of other people. I saw a huge crowd lining up to see a reading of the Declaration of Independence, in 100-degree heat. I ate red, white, and blue desserts, multiple times.

Dear ones, the branches of our national tree might be bowed, and some could even break. Both our present and our past involve failures of ethics and empathy. But there’s a root layer beyond current storms, beyond any person or policy or period. 

That root strength might surprise us all.

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Here are two patriotic favorites from this past week’s browsing:

* This terrific NYT piece on the Statue of Liberty, with tons of context that was new to me. Carefully researched and beautifully written. 

* This stunning government-funded media piece from the Bicentennial in 1976. It gives me no end of joy to know that content like this imprinted deeply on my little-kid mind.