PLASTIC SURGERY

A patriot’s tribute to America With Independence Day just passed, I want today’s column to honor our beautiful country that I love and support. This is the story of one beloved musical tribute. Katharine Lee Bates, a 33-year-old English literature teacher at Wellesley College, was in Colorado in 1893 when she looked out “over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies.” Instantly, she said, “the opening lines of the poem floated into my mind.” Those lines eventually became “America the Beautiful.” Samuel Howe composed the melody in 1882 for a different hymn, but it was varied to fit Bates’ poem in 1904 after his death. This emotional hymn is more than just a poetic appreciation of America’s beauty and greatness. It evokes its vitality, celebrates its storied past and its hope for limitless potential. It also honors our pioneers and our brave defenders, and asks for continued Divine blessings. Here are its first three verses.

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. America! America! God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea! O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress, a thoroughfare of freedom beat, across the wilderness. America! America! God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life. America! America! May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine! Dr. Paul Vanek M.D., F.A.C.S. Vanek Plastic Surgery 9485 Mentor Ave #100 Mentor, OH 44060 440-205-5750 www.MentorPlasticSurgery.com Accepting new patients for non-intrusive and surgical cosmetic and reconstructive solutions

Paul Vanek, MD, FACS