Celebrating birthdays offers the opportunity to reflect on the past and to look forward to the future. In the United States we are celebrating our 250th birthday. Looking back, we have many reasons to give thanks for how we have formed ourselves into a nation built upon the values that all are created equal and given rights and responsibilities.
When I celebrated the 200th birthday of America I was a student at Aquinas Institute of Religious Studies in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was there I had the privilege of meeting and becoming friends with members of the CSJ community. There I learned that July 1st, Canada Day, parallels our July 4th. It was then I sang for the first time, O Canada. It felt so familiar, so in tune with a sense of shared values. The friendships were built on shared faith and values as well.
We share our values learned from faith, family, and our country. In the Declaration of Independence, we read “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Canadian fundamental core values are given a more specific enumeration in The Charter of Freedoms and Rights: Freedom and Individual Rights, Inclusion and Diversity, Fairness and Equality, Compassion and Public Safety. As our societies become increasingly more complex defining and living these values also becomes more complex.
As I look to the future with hope, birthdays provide a meaningful opportunity to reflect on where we have been and how we wish to move forward. While our world faces many challenges, there is reason for optimism when we build upon the shared values that foster unity, cooperation, and care for one another. Those of us who enjoy the blessings of freedom are called to nurture and protect it by living with compassion, responsibility, and commitment to the values that help freedom flourish for all.
On the fourth of July as I sing America the Beautiful, I will pay special attention to the second verse which asks God to “mend thy every flaw, conserve thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.” And I will continue to cherish the friendships I have with “the True North, strong and free!”
-Mary Muehle, Guest Blogger
Image: Hudson Thomas/Will Goodman | Unsplash