Lately, we have been trying to dip into vacation mode with a little more regularity. However, this has been met with no small amount of difficulty. With plane ticket prices so high, gas prices through the roof, and everything more expensive than it used to be, we have instead tried to find staycation opportunities closer to home.
The world around us is filled with systems and beliefs that promise us something: financial stability, the perfect marriage, success, popularity, good health, or a happy life. But what happens when those promises turn out to be empty? What happens when our health fails, when the money is gone, or when our marriage hits a rough patch? Where do we turn? What is there that supersedes it all and can offer peace, even in life’s storms?
President Trump and members of Congress from both political parties have proposed suspending the federal gas tax, currently 18.4 cents per gallon, to provide consumers relief from this year’s substantial increase in gas prices. Unfortunately, consumers are unlikely to see much, if any, benefit from this “gas tax holiday.” Instead, oil companies are the most likely beneficiaries.
Graduation season produces a lot of forgettable advice. Fareed Zakaria’s address at Bard College this year was not that.
On July 4, 1776, the United States came to be. Then, 100 years later, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call in Boston, Massachusetts. Fast-forward nearly 100 more years after that—to 1974, Stuttgart, Germany—a 6-year-old Army brat (me) was having the first telephone call of my life. I was talking to my gramma in North Carolina, and it was complicated. We were connected by a telephone operator.
July 4, 2026 marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a milestone that invites reflection not only on the history of the United States, but on the everyday freedoms and simple joys that continue to define life in communities across the country. As the nation celebrates its semiquincentennial, July becomes more than just the height of summer. It becomes a living reminder of connection, gratitude, and the shared experiences that bind people together.
