Inspiring Hope...

I was walking about Topsmead in July's oppressive pre-Independence Day heat dome and thinking about how Edith Morton Chase, Topsmead's owner, would feel about America's 250th celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Taking a break to sit in the shade of the house's veranda, I backtracked and thought about America when Miss Edith was alive.

Living from 1891 to 1972, she certainly knew about many of the pivotal up and down moments in America's history during those years, including the 1903 flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, WW I, 1929 Stock Market crash, the Depression, WWII, 1931 completion of the Empire State Building, 1950-53 Korean War, McCarthy's Red Scare, 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, 1963 MLK "I have a dream" speech, 1963 JFK assassination, 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1968 MLK assassination, 1969 Moon Landing, 1971 debut of MS Magazine, Vietnam, and Constitutional Amendments 16th through 25th, importantly the 19th women's right to vote.

As a woman who cherished her right to vote, Miss Edith believed in the democratic aspirations of America's Founders.   In addition, she had faith in the good intentions of its people. After all, she left her beloved Topsmead to the people of Connecticut for their enjoyment.

I concluded that, if she were alive today, Miss Edith would have been in favor of and active in many of Litchfield's 250th planned events. Certainly, she would have been one of the forty readers in the community read of the Declaration of Independence on the Litchfield Green. Perhaps, with her love of animals, she and her poodle Jacques would have made an appearance at the Litchfield Historical Society's July 4 Pet Parade.

Having reached that satisfactory conclusion, I continued my walk and began noticing the trees of Topsmead:  some old and gnarled yet standing tall, some young and tender-leaved yet standing supported and protected.  Still thinking about America's 250th, I imagined the trees fitting into America's historical pattern of ups and downs, of failures and successes: the old trees embodying the challenges that American democracy has endured since its founding; the new trees, planted in the Friends of Topsmead Memorial Tree Program, inspiring hope that the aspirations of the Declaration of Independence will continue to endure and grow ever stronger as it meets the inevitable challenges that lie ahead.

Margaret Hunt
Blogmistress