Nerd Alert!

Happy Independence Day!!

I LOVE the 4th of July. I always have. I love the summer, the parade, the food, the fireworks, but the very most of all...I love 1776, the musical! In this one fell swoop, I can make musical theater buffs and historians cringe, and I DON'T CARE! I loved it when I was little, I love it today. My dad and I watched it for the first time one year when I was very small and I at least make sure I listen to the soundtrack each year just like I listen to Christmas music November through January.

One of the reasons I love 1776 so much is William Daniels. Just look at him. So classy. Even as an old man he is handsome!

Okay, so maybe I grew up and read David McCullough's John Adams and fell in love with the man instead of the myth, and maybe I realized that my most beloved musical may not have been quite historically accurate. Maybe I even watched and enjoyed HBO's John Adams miniseries based on that biography. I really loved it.

Could Paul Giamatti's John Adams ever replace Will's in my heart?

WOULD

HE?

NEVAH!....NEVAH!

...Of course not. I can't get over it! I just love the songs! I know all the words! I love the cheesy rhymes and overwrought acting. I just can't stop! I won't!

 And let's not forget the dancing! I like to think maybe this could have really happened!

So, maybe at some point I will grow out of my fierce attachment to William Daniels and the glorious musical that is 1776, but...

"Till then, Till then, I am, as I ever was, and ever shall be....yours, yours, yours, yours, yours....William Daniels, Lindsey!" (my dad is the only one who will get this.)

**In complete and total seriousness, I do love celebrating America's Independence. Sometimes, reading about the American Revolution makes me very sad. Because, while we have come so far as a country in such a short number of years, I feel like we have already experienced our peak and are on the downward slope. Most people today take American life for granted and cannot even fathom what real sacrifice entails. Our founding fathers have been deified to the point where we don't see them as regular men and that makes me sad too. They were real men, they had faults and passions, hopes and aspirations and ideals, but we are so out of touch with who they were. Lately, some of the more sordid details about their lives have come to the surface like celebrity gossip and I don't like that either. But of all the founding fathers, John Adams is my favorite. From everything I have read and seen, in spite of his faults and character flaws, he was a truly good man. He was a faithful husband, respected his wife and sacrificed unimaginably for his country. I love the myth, but I have great respect for the man.**

Happy 4th of July! And be so grateful that the Providence of God helped to bring forth this great country and all that we enjoy because of it!

Love, Lindsey