A 4th of July Story

A quick 4th of July story that made me smile:

On the afternoon of July 4, I was walking down the streets of Falmouth, wandering through the red, white, and blue that decorated the windows, storefronts, and people. I had rummaged through my drawer in the morning looking for a t-shirt with an American flag or an eagle or something patriotic, but I had nothing of the sort. I decided to go with my green t-shirt with the simple and universal recycle symbol. No, I was not making a particularly controversial statement, but I was probably not going to look like the most overtly patriotic person in Falmouth, either.

As I strolled through the quaint and typically American town center, I crossed the path of a mother out for a stroll with her twin sons. Both blonde and seemingly adopted directly from a Norman Rockwell painting, the twins were about seven or eight years old. Their mother was pushing them in a sleek stroller—one that was apparently designed with a jogging mother of twins in mind.

I noticed as I passed the stroller that one of the boys was staring intently at my t-shirt. Just as I got a step beyond them, I could hear the boy ask his mother, “Mom, what is that guy doing with the recycling sign on his shirt?”

If I was impressed with the boy’s ability to recognize the symbol on my shirt, it was his mother’s response that really made me smile. “Well, dear, some people think that recycling is important. In fact, I believe we should all think that recycling is important.”

As I passed out of earshot, the conversation had already turned to Uncle Sam and why some people had chosen to wear fake white beards and tall stars-and-stripes hats. The mother’s response, though, stuck in my mind for a while longer, as I tried to convince myself that, just maybe, a symbol of respect for the world and the environment might be considered patriotic, too.