America the Beautiful
The lyrics to “America the Beautiful” were written by Katharine Lee Bates (a Wellesley alumna!) and that is exactly how I feel about this country. No where, no one and no thing is without a few warts (a lyric from the song actually says “God mend thine ev’ry flaw”) and I feel both proud and lucky to be a U.S. citizen. As I rode my bike past this iconic Nantucket windmill the other day (the oldest functioning mill in the U.S.), it suddenly struck me that the huge American flag acts like a blanket protecting one of its oldest residents. Being enveloped by the stars and stripes, by the freedoms it represents, by the opportunities it provides us is a gift that I hope most if not all Americans appreciate “from sea to shining sea”.