Robert Burns Day

Happy 250th Birthday! We didn't do much to celebrate this year, mostly because I haven't had the energy. Usually we have corned beef and hash and other Americanized-Scottish food, plus root beer in place of actual beer. And we always read Burns' poetry.

It is so much fun! He was a prolific and diversified poet, filling his poems and songs with thoughtfulness, passion, and a great sense of humor. He proudly proclaims to be a lover not a fighter:
"I'm better pleased to make one more,
Than be the death of twenty."
-I Murder Hate

Address of Beelzebub addresses his passion for America's freedom:

"Some daring Hancock, or a Franklin,
May set their Highland blood a-ranklin';
Some Washington again may head them,
Or some Montgomery, fearless, lead them"

and Scottish oppression:

". . . what right have they
To meat or sleep or light of day,
Far less to riches, power or freedom,
But what your lordships please to give them?"

And of course we finished off with Auld Lang Syne. One day we'll be able to read more, when the children's attention spans lengthen.