I hope you had an enjoyable Independence Day doing whatever it is you like to do on such days. Fittingly, I just returned from a trip to Philadelphia, the epicenter of our countries pursuit of independence that came to fruition in 1776.

I was in Philly attending the National Athletic Trainers' Association conference. To practice as a Certified Athletic Trainer, one is required to maintain a certain number of continuing education hours, which can be obtained by attending these conferences. Thrilling stuff.

Five days of educational sessions. Five days of listening to people talk about their research, talk about new developments in the treatment of injuries, talk…talk…talk. I need five days in solitary confinement to recover.

This was my first visit to the “City of Brotherly Love”, a place I have now been, and don’t feel a need to return. It was interesting to see some of the historical sites, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklins grave (I like cemeteries), and the various other “sites of interest.”

I visited the Rocky Statue and ran the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so I’m ready to take on Creed, Clubber Lang, and whoever else needs taking on. Such as the homeless guy that threw a chicken bone at me. He missed…I smiled…he smiled…we good. City of brotherly love.

“Sites of interest” is highly subjective. I’m not sure any of us has much control of what it is we find interesting or desirable? Some “just do” and others “just don’t” for various reasons or no perceivable reason at all.

If we so choose, many of us are fortunate enough to have the capacity to develop an independent mind capable of individual pursuits of interests. Pursuits of interest that may benefit the individual or the collective, often times both.

While reading the many plaques and historical accounts scattered about Philadelphia, it is evident that those who strove to establish our countries independence and penned the outline for such, did so with great thought and contemplation, and with the collective good and the good of the individual in mind.

As Marcus Aurelius once wrote, “What is good for the hive is good for the bees.” Through great effort and personal risk, our founders got this American experiment rolling, leaving us in the hive to quibble about what it is that is “good”. A quibble that I’m sure will always be a part of our country, given that the subjective good of some is all too often confused for an objective good for all. So it goes.

On one of my walkabouts in Philadelphia, I came upon a monument in Washington Square where there is a tomb and an eternal flame to commemorate the unknown soldiers of the American Revolution. Engraved in the granite are the words, “Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness”.

Independence Day, independent thought, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Be a light, and remember, not all chicken bones are thrown in anger. Sometimes people just need another human to acknowledge they exist.