Happy 250th birthday, America!
That’s an impressive number of candles on the cake — and syllables in “semiquincentennial.”
Yet looking at the celebration aerial photos to date, it seems not everyone is in the mood to party. Or feels invited. Or likes the host.
Twenty-five years ago when I started working in community news, reporters routinely covered the Holy Grail of milestone birthdays, the 100th. Readers were fascinated by the sheer longevity of the person, and wanted to know how they attributed their luck. Was it good living? Wild living? A life of love? Fish on Fridays, wine on Wednesdays? Plain ol’ genetic lottery?
People were also fascinated by how centenarians navigated change — soaking up memories of how industrialization and historical milestones altered ordinary lives.
I remember one woman in particular in Manistee, who’d reached the 100-year milestone, and her friend called the newspaper to recommend the story. In those days, you just knocked on a door with your notebook and camera, and more often than not, people would open it. She was a tiny thing, wearing a sweater in the summertime, but she invited me in, carefully drawing the curtains against the sun’s heat. Her home was dark but she beamed with vitality, knowledge and connection. She credited her longevity to remaining curious about the world, and I have never forgotten that.
It’s rare to find a 100-year birthday story anymore. Lifespans are lengthening, which is fantastic for all of us, but the unfortunate side effect is that it dilutes what was once an achievement into something more ordinary. The goalposts moved. Now we recognize 110-year birthdays, 75th wedding anniversaries and so on.
I guess the point is, at 250 years, that longevity is cause enough to celebrate, and that there are lessons in it for all of us.
How did we — a nation of immigrants and Native Americans — become the world’s longest continuous democracy?
How have we navigated the tension between a country forged on ideals and behavior that falls short of them?
Can we recognize, in looking back to the America of 250 years ago, what changed and what hasn’t?
Like those moments in interviews when the centenarian recalls the first push of a light switch or car ride, I was always struck by how the long view shows change as constant and the importance of agency that people feel in its role.
America of 250 years ago would have allowed few of us to be what we are today, but here we are.
I appreciate the celebrations that overcome politics, focusing instead on our fundamentals, the recognition that we are a work-in-progress that requires accountability and transparency and that anything we’ve achieved is because of our differences, not in spite of them.
Happy birthday! Now make a wish.