In Celebration of Independence, Paul McCartney, Interdependence, and Freedom On This July 4th Day!

If we speak as slick and sincerely as an angel, but do not have love in our heart, we are like a guitar with no strings. If we provide for our family but have no love in our hearts for the poor, we are poor in spirit. If we claim to celebrate and love our country, but do not celebrate or love half the people in in, we are like fireworks on a rainy night.

Love never tires, brags, shames, or fails. In our lives, there are three precious and great attributes to hold closest within your heart and soul: faith, hope and love. And the greatest, and the most precious of them all is love.

In 1968, a member of the Beatles, Paul McCartney, was in a hotel room in the United Kingdom. He was watching television news from America that showed a black woman, protesting segregation, who was being brutally beaten by police officers.

Paul McCartney picked up a guitar and wrote a song called “Blackbird” to the black woman protestor in America. You may know that the word “bird” in England is slang for “woman.” Hence, the woman protestor in America was the “black bird” being beaten and broken. And so, in the song, Paul McCartney says to her, “Blackbird singing in the dead of night / Take these broken wings and learn to fly / All your life / You were only waiting for this moment to arise… / Take these sunken eyes and learn to see / All your life / You were only waiting for this moment to be free…”

Take a listen and Happy Interdependence Day!