Scenes from around town Last Saturday, while I was waiting for my daughters to finish an engineering conference for girls, I spent some time just driving around Knoxville. I was getting onto I-40, when I saaw a car parked on the side of the entrance ramp, one of those circular clover leaf ones. The gman was fiddling around in the trunk, and since he was an older gentleman, I slowed down to see if he needed a hand. When I drew abreast of his car, I could see what was absorbing his attention; je was breaking down a fishing pole, and putting a stringer of bluegill into a cooler in his trunk. There was a small pond nestled in the circle of the cloverleaf, and he had spent a few morning hours wetting his line.
I love living in East Tennessee.
I stopped by Borders soon after opening to browse the shelves, and see what caught my eye. Passing by the bargain bin a saw a slim volume entitled Practical Origami
And they say literature is dead.
I stopped to put gas in my Tracker and saw that the honeymoon was over. American car flags were on sale, marked down from $12.99 to $3.99. It made me wonder, how much of the last 6 months has been cheap sentiment, and how much true patriotism? Are the patriots still out there, or are we just wanna-bees, waiting for the next crisis to erupt so we can wave our flags, make pretty speeches, then go back to sleep. Maybe I'm naive, but I think that there are true patriots, and more of them than there are wanna-bees. We may not wave the flag as ferociously as the last six months; we may squabble among ourselves about trivial issues, but when the time for action is thrust upon us, we act in unison.
In the next few months, before the next big eruption hits, we are going to see people falling back into their normal routines, and pettiness will once again dominate in politics. But I think that we are now more aware that just beneath the surface, lies a well spring of strength and love of country, ready to be tapped when needed.