It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

As the nights get colder here in California and we begin to say farewell to the year that is ending, we hold our loved ones close…and reflect on the things that are most dear to us.

For many of us, the most precious treasure of all is the freedom we, as a nation, have fought to uphold through the best of times….and the worst of times.

And we remember Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy. The feelings and prayers of our nation then – as they are now – are well expressed in a beloved musical sentiment.

“We’re going to need a song,” Kate Smith’s manager told Irving Berlin in 1938. War had already broken out in Europe, and it was only a matter of time before America would enter the fray. A rejected twenty year-old manuscript came to mind, and soon Irving was telling Kate: I have a little song from the last war. It’s not much, but you’re welcome to it.

“While the storm clouds gather
far across the sea
Let us swear allegiance
to a land that’s free
Let us all be grateful
for a land so fair
As we raise our voices
in a solemn prayer…..

God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the ocean white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home.”

Happy holidays, everybody.