The American experiment

It's still too early to judge whether this democracy is a failure or a success. It has certainly had its share of both. I have to believe that there is hope for us yet, just as I believe that God has not yet finished the creation, that we are still evolving toward something new, on the brink of a discovery.

Today is one of those days when we sing our most patriotic songs, hands over our hearts, hats removed from our brows. This is one of my favorites because of its not-often-sung second verse. It is one we citizens need to commit to memory and to heart, that if we are a nation under God, we ought to be so humbly and with contrition as much as we are with pride and faith.

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

Albert Bierstadt, Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail, ca. 1873.

And go to Wounded Bird to read Mimi's post for today. Say a prayer for our nation and our world.

PS. 2007 also marks the 500th anniversary of the naming of America.