Here we are on the cusp of Independence Day. Anybody feel like waving the flag?

I knew someone who would. “We can’t allow the flag to belong to only the far right,” said my mother-in-law, Helen Maley, 25 or more years ago. She and her husband, Tom Maley, were preparing to pose for a portrait in a book called Couples, by Mariana Cook. In the published photo Helen defiantly holds the family flagpole up at an angle. The contraption looked heavy, suspending a bedspread-size banner which otherwise flew over the roof of their deck.

Helen was a true liberal, tuned in to society’s troubles, and she did all she could to alleviate the world’s discomforts. She would have marched in the No Kings protests and waved her over-sized flag for all to see.

Helen and Tom are long gone, but her comment has stuck in my head, especially now on the eve of America’s birthday. The expression, “flag-waving,” implies a jingoistic, gung-ho patriotic hothead who is keen on going to war for the glory of it all. And now that bombs are dropping again in various parts of the Middle East, ‘squeamish’ is the word I might use to describe my feelings about flaunting that symbolic flag.

I looked again at social media photos of No Kings day, read plenty of signs and was interested to see the stars and stripes pop up here and there throughout the massive city crowds. As Helen might have  said: “We need to re-capture that flag and show the world that the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and their powerful messages of freedom are meant for all Americans, all faiths, all political perspectives.”

But it ain’t easy being red, white and blue.

Condolences to Judy Crawford whose home on Nat’s Farm Road suffered substantial damages in a fire. Judy and her dog were able to escape unharmed, but it will be some months before her house will be ready to live in again. Judy is staying with friends nearby.

Vicky Bijur was awakened the other night by the sounds of over-zealous splashing in her swimming pool. She hurried outside to see what was going on and found that a deer had stumbled somehow into the water. Vicky and her husband Ed Levine attempted to rescue the deer. They both tried to capture her, as the panicked animal flailed from one end of the pool to the other. They coaxed the deer to swim to the shallow end, where she walked herself out. The pool lining was damaged beyond immediate repair, spelling an early end to this swimming season. And that deer is probably still a little shaky.

Happy Birthday on Monday, July 7, to Anna Alley and Pam Thors. Birthday wishes are on their way to Sandra Fisher on Thursday, July 10.

Happy birthday to America on Friday, July 4.