(from the movie 1776)
“Who is your favorite founding father?” Not the kind of question usually asked at our rather quiet breakfasts on the deck. This morning, however, Dean asked and I attempted to answer.
John Adams. But then of course he fits so closely with Jefferson and Franklin. Then there’s Washington, who answered the call of the other three and was in the field for years, fighting for what the others had so carefully crafted from their hearts to paper.
We don’t hear a lot about Hancock and yet, there it is, his signature bold and large and first across the bottom of the page, declaring his support for this amazing step, one that had never been taken before nor since.
One layer away and we have a group of men, a congress, many unknown names, who sat and struggled and voted and debated and finally said Yes to splitting from their mother country as an independent nation.
Radiating out from Washington particularly were all the thousands of ordinary men and women, farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, innkeepers who were willing to give up their lives in order to be free of the oppression of the crown.
And where and how did they all come to be present in that one point in history?
Who is Your favorite founding father? Dean’s by the way is Franklin because he was such an innovator, inventor and creative thinker. Ask the question this weekend. Enjoy the answers. Celebrate the real reason this is a holiday and join me in my yearly toast: To Thomas, Benjamin and John, the founders of our feast.
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