Here is my somewhat annual Fourth of July post.

Every year I review it and add a few things and remove a few depending on my mood and the circumstances…

In no particular order here is the list of stuff I love about America.

Hot Dogs and Sauerkraut, Drive In Restaurants, The Blue Ridge Parkway, Five Guys, Columbo, Amish people, Hamburgers, Flannery O’Connor, T-Shirts, Clear Creek Monastery, equality, Cole Porter, the saxophone, Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream, Katherine Hepburn, Maker’s Mark, football, Shawshank Redemption, cranberry juice, generosity, shoo fly pie, North Carolina mountains, milkshakes, South Carolina, marching bands, T.S.Eliot, religiosity, Amusement Parks, Fiddler on the Roof, Aaron Copeland, Optimism, Indiana Jones, beauty pageants, Charleston SC, Orthodontics, Frank Sinatra, Thomas Merton, Rib Eye Steaks, Bar BQ, Tina Turner, ceiling fans, Myrtle Beach, Thanksgiving, gospel quartets, the pool, oreos, baseball, clean toilets, O Brother Where Art Thou, Ray Ban sunglasses, B. B. King, Ronald Reagan, turtle track ice cream, Tennessee Williams, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Casablanca, Chick-Fil-A, Clarence Thomas, pickles, Andrew Wyeth, The Platters, pretzels, the Blues Brothers, Dorothy Day, patriotism, air conditioning, summer camp, Patsy Cline, pontoon boats, pecan pie, naivety, James Taylor, Manhattans, peanut butter, The Thanatos Syndrome, pizza, root beer, the pro life movement, friendliness, Dr. Pepper,  Mel Gibson, conspiracy theories, peaches, front porches, the Grand Canyon, corn on the cob, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, hash browns, the open road, Empire State Building, enthusiasm, gangster movies, Buster Keaton, fresh shrimp, Guys and Dolls, Gershwin, freedom, the Shenandoah Valley, taking risks, Ella Fitzgerald, fried chicken, Robert Frost, cheerfulness, Saving Private Ryan, interstate rest stops, Redwood forests, Robert Duvall, cook outs, Niagara Falls,