Holiday Thoughts
I stayed home for most of Independence Day. Read. Worked in the yard. Talked to the cats. I think you can call that independence. When the sun set and the time came, I walked into town for the fireworks. I arrived just in time to hear the end of our national anthem and see the evening sky begin to light up with a colorful display of pops and bangs. I expected more people, but there may have been other vantage points.
When the show was over, I walked home down a back road with only one or two cars passing by. To finish the trip, I had to cross five lanes of highway 290. Even that was empty. Sometimes, when I cross the big road, I have to run because it’s downhill into town and people in cars are in a hurry and seldom expect to see someone on foot in the middle of the road. I never assume I’m seen. But there was no need to run last night. There were no cars. I strolled across.
Thus ended my 79th celebration of the Fourth of July, which is probably stretching the term, celebration, since I doubt it encompasses simply being alive. But that’s what it was, me being alive and walking into town. Independent. Although, when you’re one of 300 million people, are you really independent? Probably not. Because the list of people doing things that help me, a stranger, stay alive is longer than I can imagine. Although, I believe it’s already been imagined, because our constitution starts out, “We the people.”