A Grand Thing

Whenever an ambulance speeds through a crowded street, I feel a profound sense of awe as cars part to make way. For whatever nonsensical reason, in that moment I feel very American and very proud to be an American. There is an inherent sense of respect, community-ness, understanding that somehow I associate with the US that I hear in the sirens and watch in the red lights pulling to the side of the road...

I felt that same feeling last week – a week that began with the fevered pitch of an election and ended on the beaches of Normandy in a solitude that stills the soul. Something about watching Americans line up at the polls on CNN, discoursing on the pros and cons of both candidates with taxi drivers, doormen, colleagues (Emirate, American, Lebanese, Palestinian, Egyptian etc.), hearing my dad tell stories of WW II soldiers (including my grandfathers), seeing the American Cemetery shadows rotate with the sun at Omaha Beach…

At the entrance to Omaha Beach the following is engraved:
"To us is given the honour of striking a blow for freedom which will live in history; and in the better days that lie ahead men will speak with pride of our doings." ~ Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery

And now I live in those "better days" and have hopes for even better "better days." I can pray in peace, learn for free, vote with noise, speak with confidence, live without fear. To be an American is a grand thing.