Thanks again for visiting my blog. As we get ready to celebrate this July 4th weekend, I wanted to take a few moments to talk about what this important holiday means to me and my family and perhaps to you and yours as well. Everyone is pretty much in a “lot to do” mode right about now, running around getting the BBQ ready, loading the car for a long weekend or the family vacation, planning the best vantage point for Saturday night’s fireworks, or figuring out the best time to hit the highway to avoid traffic. In the middle of all this activity, it’s easy for us to lose sight of what July 4 is all about and why we are celebrating it. While all the preparations and parties are fun, I do believe that we need to reflect, even if only for a few moments, on the fact that what we are commemorating here is not just a date or what happened more than two centuries ago in Philadelphia. What we are celebrating is something that many of us here in the United States take for granted and that much of the world desperately wants to have. What we are really celebrating this weekend are all the freedoms that we and our families enjoy on a daily basis. Some of these freedoms, such as being able to decide where to have dinner or what kind of toothpaste to buy, seem pretty minor until we don’t have them anymore. And others of these freedoms, such those contained in the Bill of Rights, are so basic to who we are as a nation that we can’t fathom not having them. Enjoy this holiday with you and yours. I’ll be back on Monday!