I’ve never seen the Liberty Bell. Not in person.
I think bells are okay as things go. I have a few bells. Bells that I ring sometime, just to listen to the sound of their ringing. I always get a kick out of people who are in those bell choruses, or choirs. I don’t know why it makes me laugh, but to see the little conductor egging them on, and they, ringing on cue. I’m sure it takes more musical skill than I could ever muster, and I respect them for that, in a smiling good way.
Anyway, back to old Liberty Gal. I read this morning a history report that this is the date she cracked, back in 1835. (This particular history report is published in England, so I’m never quite sure about the facts concerning the United States. There’s still that whole business with us and George III that still bothers some folks.)
I looked into the cracking of the bell, and it turns out there is a lot of mystery where that thing is concerned. Somehow, I had remembered from early school, that we forged the bell for our 1776 Independence. This just isn’t so.
The bell was born in 1751. The Pennsylvania Assembly had it made to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges. That document served as Pennsylvania’s original Constitution. So 1751 is the bell’s birthdate.
And the Liberty Bell was not rung on July 4, 1776, to mark our Independence. That was a story made up by a reporter much later in life. Some magazine writer somewhere penned the story in 1847. So like, Ben, Tom, George, Alex, all those guys weren’t in some big circle around the bell, holding hands, singing Kumbaya. Instead, they were probably having beers and barbecue in Madison’s backyard.
We all call it the Liberty Bell, but that wasn’t its original name. It started as the State House Bell. It was during the 1830s when it got its Liberty Bell name. That is when it became a symbol of the anti-slavery movement.
But, I started all of this to find out when the bell first cracked. And the answer is? No one knows for sure. Some “theorize” that it first cracked when it arrived in Philadelphia, that very first “test” ring. I can see the guys now, “You haven’t paid the bill yet, have you?”
Apparently, though, there was more than one cracking. I did find that the last big crack happened on Washington’s Birthday in February 1846. They were ringing it to celebrate President’s Day. From that point on, they stopped ringing the bell because of damage from that major crack.
It made me think about us. People. We all crack sometimes. And to different degrees. If we are more on the human scale of things, those cracks mend and heal over time. We go on ringing. Maybe not the exact same song, but we still ring. It depends on how deep that crack was, I suppose. On the other hand, sometimes people crack, and they are more toward the bell end of the scale. Bells can’t heal themselves as we can. And people get this way too. They crack and never come back. Sadly.
I think as long as we can keep that “original” song in our hearts, we hold on to the ability to mend. To heal. To ring again. That’s good for us, and for the rest of the world too. Our song, continuing to ring.
===========
“We all shine on…like the moon and the stars and the sun…we all shine on…
— John Lennon
===========
“I like the night. Without the dark, we’d never see the stars.”
― Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
============
“To hear the phrase “our only hope” always makes one anxious, because it means that if the only hope doesn’t work, there is nothing left.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book
===========
