7/04/10 LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

WE THE PEOPLE
DUCKWEED, THE TINIEST FLOWERING PLANT
OPEN FROM BREAKFAST TO SUPPERTIME
WATER LILY IN THE THOUSAND YEAR EGG JAR

Sunday, 7:30 AM. 77 degrees, wind SW, breezy. The sky is mixed clouds and blue and there is considerable haze over the lake. The barometer still predicts rain but we hope it holds off.
The family is off to the ferry and the parade on Madeline Island, us old folks opting to stay home with the dogs. Last evening we went to Cornucopia to watch the fireworks, and there were hundreds of people on the beach, the kids wading in the water.
We have finally found a use for the Chinese thousand-year egg jar we bought in New York’s China Town in 1976. It now holds a dwarf hardy water lily, which opens after breakfast and closes at suppertime.
Also occupying the jar is a considerable flotilla of duck weed, probably Lemna minor, a species native to our area. Duck weed is one of the smallest flowering plants, with no stem, the roots dangling from the floating leaves, which divide to produce new plants asexually.
The Declaration of Independence is a reminder of the serious side of the holiday, beneath the customary frivolities of fireworks, parades and picnics. Let us all pause to read it and rededicate ourselves to its basic tenets, which are just as relevant today as ever. “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”