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Friday, July 4, 2014

It Was The Fruit Salad That Did It

It must have been terrifying for the colonists to leave the comforts of England.  To sail off into the world, leaving everything they had ever known behind them to find a new home?  I get upset if I can't sit in my favorite chair--I can't even imagine the courage it took to even leave port.

And then to form a new colony from nothing?  To face hardships, disease, and Native Americans who weren't too happy to have their land taken?  Scary.

But just think about this for a moment. This week, which we celebrate today, our forefathers sat in a room and agreed to break away from the only government they had ever known.  They defied a King, told him to go away, and created the government that we have today.  The people who signed that Declaration of Independence knew that they were committing treason against the powerhouse that was Britain.  They were about to go up against what was at that time the greatest Army in the world.

Impossible. Scary. Terrifying.  Those guys in that room were signing their death warrants.  They were putting their names to a document that would ensure that they would be hung for treason...if the American Revolution had gone the other way.

And they did it anyway.  Think about that for a minute, about the courage it took to risk so much.  I often contemplate their bravery, their heart, their certainty in their right to govern themselves.

Why did they do it?  What singular thing solidified their resolve, and gave them the courage to stand up to the might of Britain?

I know the answer.  It was the fruit salad.  Those founding fathers tasted all that the New World had given them--strawberries, pineapples, blueberries, bananas, oranges, and grapes. (Yes, I know that pineapples didn't show up until much later--I'm working a metaphor here.) Mixed together in an assortment that predicted what America would become, joined with an elegant orange-lemon-vanilla syrup.

Fruit salad did it. The rest is history.  Happy Fourth! Posted by TMW Hickman at 12:42 PM Labels: founding fathers, fruit salad, humor, July Fourth

