THE 7 THINGS YOU MISSED THIS MORNING

Really, you did miss some mighty important stuff this morning. Maybe even more than seven. With all due respect to your busy schedule, here's what I think you missed:

* The smell of your world. Ever think about that? Your world really does have a smell to it. A fascinating recipe of green fragrances like our taken-for-granted grass and trees, mixed with black odors like trucks, jets, and angry expressways. Each new morning it's a one-of-a-kind fragrance

* Then there's the sound of your world. You know, the hum of car tires, commuter trains, traffic congestion, the whole hard-breathing effort with which the world around you is struggling and striving each new day to make it to the next

*  Also, the cooing, cawing and flight of the many birds who fill your sky with their sweet existence. While they work to breed and feed, their lyrics can be a Mozart sonata if only we give them more of our busy attention

* Next, that rainbow of flowers that bursts at every turn on this summer day, but which you probably took all too much for granted on your way to whatever you decided was more important

* Lets not forget the celestial chorus of little children out there, giggling and dreaming as they play through one more blissful August day without school. Did you catch it? Probably not

* Finally, the silent chorus of elders around you who have lived too long to either giggle or dream; but not long enough to be taken for granted by those of us who know so much less about life than their silence contains

* Number seven...? Well, "missing" this one is not your fault. I and a few million remaining others speak here of the last time our fair land burst with a rare fury of patriotic desire and devotion. A time when even parties, religions, and races all understood what we have in common. I speak of that tragic but inspiring four years the Greatest Generation fought and won World War II. In a funny kind of way, missing that you missed the most remarkable time in the history of a remarkable nation. A time when, despite the horrific bloodshed, Americans actually stood shoulder to shoulder not toe to toe.