I Love USA

Today being Independence Day, my mind turns to previous incidences of the same. It seems to me that there are three real traditions involved. There are, of course, the fireworks. There are the sanctioned displays, but those are a little less fun in that they are remote to you, and it is significant that there is no danger involved in the handling of the fireworks by professionals. The prospect of gruesome injury definitely adds some flavor, awful though it might be.

There is the food, of course. People are apt to conflate barbecues with cookouts. The majority of people are at cookouts, regardless of what they say or think. Burgers and hot dogs are not a barbecue. Brats are not even a barbecue. Actual barbecue makes a barbecue. That's things like ribs and pulled pork. I have been at few true barbecues if any. That's not the say that cookouts are unpleasant. They are awesome, but I know them for what they are.

There is the solemnity of the occasion, and that is to be kept as minimal as it can be. It's proper to have a place for appreciation of the reasons for the day, but it's no holiday if you have to spend a lot of time and energy proving yourself as a patriotic American. That's just like a day back at in grade school, or like Sunday school with America instead of God. That's no fun. Let's all just confine ourselves to brief outbursts of sincere love of country, and then the rest can stay in our heads.

I don't as yet know what the whole day has in store for me. This is likely to be a more raucous honoring of America than I am accustomed to in previous years.There have been some memorable July 4ths, and some not so much ones. I was struck by an inability to remember what we did any year I worked at summer camp, and I did that something like seven summers. That's nearly a quarter of my July 4ths. Here's hoping this one tops those and the rest.