Anne Davis, a true patriot and friend, shares a lot of thoughts with me over time. She sent the following email on the morning after the terrorist attacks in Paris:
“I just wanted to share with you what an incredible walk I had with the dogs (and one cat) a while ago. I took them outside early this morning when it was still cold, dark and windy. I was in a hurry to get back in and get our breakfast (especially my coffee)! But, just awhile ago, it looked like it might be warmer outside, and I had been watching, constantly, the terrible news from Paris, and just wanted to get away from the ugliness of humans for a little while. I couldn’t believe it! As soon as the pups, cat and I got on the pasture, everything was perfectly still. It was warm. The quiet was deafening.
So many people don’t get to understand what ‘deafening quiet’ is. I first experienced it with my father. He and I would go for walks on my grandpa’s farm – in the pastures, the woods, around the lake, etc. He would stop me and say, “Listen to the quiet!” If you have ever heard it once, you will never forget just how quiet it can be. It’s powerful!
I didn’t even want to say anything to the dogs to disturb it. Usually, when I am out with them, we hear trucks from Hwy. 364, but there was nothing. I then reflected on how awful things are in Paris, but right where I was, and it has been for 25 years, is my little slice of total peace. These are the times I wonder how in the heck people can live in the big cities with their thoughts racing, worries, noise and other things on their minds.
I eventually had to stop our walk and come back into reality. Now there has been a French train that derailed and people were killed and injured. The world keeps turning. But right outside my door, I can totally escape, and I am truly grateful.”
Anne always encourages me. I hope I have the same effect on her.
Vive la France
I am reading “Benjamin Franklin, an American Life” by Walter Isaacson. It is fascinating reading and reveals new insights on this remarkable man and inventor who was world famous before the Revolutionary War began. He loved England and the English, and at first was slow to turn against the “Mother Country” but when he did so it was all the way.
Franklin went to France to seek help for the colonies. In France he was greatly admired and treated as a world famous person. Surrounded by spies and intrigues he was able to obtain help that insured the success of the colonists against powerful England without entangling the new nation in lasting treaties to hinder America’s freedom. Back in America the Congress, after only two days of deliberation, ratified the treaty with France.
During the war for independence and in the forming of a unique republic Benjamin Franklin played a leading part in insuring the remarkable birth of the United States of America.
Franklin might well join us in saying “God save France today!”
