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Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
I was sitting outside on the porch yesterday watching the traffic go buy and noticed the kids’ swing set. It still sees a good deal of use from time to time, but the slide is broken and needs to be taken off and discarded.
It got me to thinking about growing older as I approach yet another birthday. It was in that same yard that as a young boy I sat on a swing set much like the one there now and kicked my feet learning to go higher and higher, but always being aware that going to high could lead to a few scary moments when the swing set legs would leap off of the ground for just a bit before settling back down.
It was scary and yet exciting at the same time. I grew up, got older and the swing set saw less and less use. I’m not even sure what happened to that old swing. Probably laying in a ditch or cut up for scrap long ago. I was sitting there looking at the swings wondering what day ended that period of my life. When was it that I decided I was too old to swing, when did I become so grown up that getting on the seat and kicking my legs as hard as I could to propel myself higher and higher was no longer acceptable?
In a way life is like being five years old and riding that swing. We take a chance, climb on the swing and kick higher and higher until the legs of the swing set come off the ground and startle us. And soon, we’ve become so scared of swinging that we no longer feel safe on it. So we put that joy away and look at it longingly, remembering the days of carefree joy that we once had. It’s a shame really, for we all need to be five from time to time, to take a chance and just be there on that swing and let the wind blow across our faces. Forgetting for a time that we have grown up things on our minds, and reliving that carefree time when all that mattered was how high we could go while keeping both legs on the ground.
See you next week...Remember, we're all in this together.