I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

June 6, 2024, marked the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings

along the Normandy coast during the Second World War.

D-Day, of course, is the term often used to refer to the landing operations on June 6,

1944 in Normandy for the Allied invasion.

Ever since I wrote my biography of Winston Churchill,

40 ways to look at Winston Churchill,

and studied the Second World War,

I've been particularly interested in D-Day. Several years ago my family and I went on a trip to France

and we visited the World War II D-Day sites in Normandy. Reading articles about the

80th anniversary and some of the speeches given on the occasion reminded me of one of my favorite memories about that trip.

I've told this story before but I can't resist telling it again. On our visit we visited

Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial as

well as some sites in little French towns whose names I do not dare to try to pronounce,

lest any French speakers among our listeners have to rip their earphones from their ears. It was a fascinating day, just awe-inspiring. It's hard to grasp the

magnitude of what happened there in June 1944. So much planning, so much courage, so much sacrifice.

I've spoken often about my America feeling, the feeling I get when I vote, or when I see the

Statue of Liberty, or when I serve on a jury, or when I hear the song, The Farmer and the

Cowman from the musical Oklahoma.

And no surprise. I experienced the America feeling over and over as we visited

those sites. But something that's true for me is that I feel ideas most

deeply when they come to me through words. I can visit places, I can see places, but in the end it's writing that strikes me to the core.

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