A belated post, Mikey

As I was walking this morning, I was struck by the number of American flags flying in front of people's houses. Arlington is a fairly patriotic part of Virginia, but today it seemed even more so. I wondered if it had to do with the impending tenth anniversary of 9/11. Or perhaps, in a more uplifting way, it was in anticipation of the dedication of the long-overdue Martin Luther King memorial on the Mall.

Lost in thoughts like this, I next heard the sound of one of these flags snapping in the wind, and the word freedom immediately came to mind. An instant association.  I wondered if the sound conjured up the word freedom because that's my basic association with our flag. Then I thought about it more and realized that the sound is exactly that of a sail luffing and puffing.

To me, there are few places on earth where I feel more free than in a boat on the water. Put together, though, the sound of the flag and its true beauty and meaning, I think it's fair to say that I only have that deep sense of freedom out on the water because I live in the country I do.

And for that, I'm very grateful.