The kids, Mark and Christina at least, finish school tomorrow. This has been finals week and they are anxiously looking forward to the last day. I remember well that feeling of walking home on the last day of school. I usually rode the bus each day, but to savor the experience (and because I couldn’t wait for the bus) I headed out on my own at a half gallop, half sprint to reach the freedom of home--free from teachers, free from books, and free from dirty looks, no make that assignments. And I was one that loved school. I can only imagine how much tomorrow will mean to the high-schoolers who claim they “hate” school.

But in addition to being Freedom Day for the kids, it’s FD for me too. With a mixture of delayed projects and an improved ability to say “no,” I’ve actually freed up the holiday weekend. Most past Memorial Day weekends have been spent playing catch up, stretching work into the front side or back side of the long weekend. But not this year.

So that feeling of freedom is back tonight. A real vacation lies ahead. It’s been awhile and it feels weird. With Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on a Saturday this past winter, I got gypped. And if my memory serves me right, my last real vacation occurred back around Independence Day. I’m overdue.

Now all I have to do is work on dealing with the guilt of not being productive.

The music playing in the background is helping. It is a soothing CD entitled, “Is it Rolling Bob?: A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan.” My computer is pumping out the tunes through the cheap computer speakers (sorry Bob) as I type away thinking about freedom. Remembering. Looking back. Thinking that a link exists between our upcoming holiday and the freedom I will hopefully taste and enjoy these next few days.

I’m coming to realize that my duty in these upcoming days, through contemplation with a spirit of gratitude, will be to embrace the fact that I’ve “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Every day in all the ways I can, I need to strive for the freedom that comes in service to the Almighty and others. I pray that this conclusion might not get blowin’ away in the winds of thinking only of me.

In listening to the last song on the album, “I and I,” the realization came for the first time that Dylan is probably making reference in some way to the Almighty, the One who said to Moses: I am who I am. If I could better understand the mumblings of the Bobster, I might figure out how he craft fully alludes to a closer relationship between us and God, an intimacy that would be lessened by a use of the word “you.” But what do I know?

I do know that “A Hard Rain’s Been A-Falling” all day long and is supposed to continue all weekend long, and that’s how we truly know that it is Memorial Day Weekend in Minnesota. So let’s all pitch out tents and sleep out in the rain. It’s a rich long tradition in this state.