QUESTION: HOW DOES ONE CELEBRATE THE 4TH OF JULY WITH A HERNIA

Answer-go get your youngest Grandson, get your photo taken with him and then go to a neighborhood parade. It is amazing. Suddenly, you just feel so much better.

I hope all of you in the USA that read this Blog had a wonderful holiday today. Despite our challenges, we have a wonderful country.

I also know that there are many of you in other countries that read my Blog and I don't want to be insensitive and "American Centric". I know all of you are equally and appropriately proud of your country and you also have holdiays to celebrate your country's history.

What I've learned through years of international travel is that all of us share in common so much more than the small differences between us. One of the great things about the Internet is that is allows us to learn about each other and realize that we are really not very different.

We all love our families, care deeply about our friends and are proud of our countries. I appreciate all of you, whether you are from India, Asia, Europe, South America, Africa, Australia or all the other places. It makes me happy when I look at the map of the world on my Blog to see all of the indicators showing you have paid this Blog a visit.

But I am not happy that on May 11th, the service that tracks all of my visitors dropped 9,129 of your visits off of the map so that it now only shows the ones since that date.

However, despite the irritant of losing the record on-line of all your visits (I have it off-line), thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. I wish I could meet each and every one of you. In the end, we are all citizens of the same planet.

So to evey one, regardless of whether you are celebrating with us as Americans today, I say Happy 4th of July.