America! America the beautiful! America the proud and strong and brave! America: a masterpiece of social theater! America: the greatest experiment of the modern age!
Wow, I am still really amped-up about my country and the love I have for it and its people. And no wonder! It's Independence Day, and I just partook in festively recalling, with hundreds of my compatriots, why our grand nation is so worth revering.
But I'll get around to reviewing America and its glory at a later date. For now, I'll stick with the Everytown, USA family fireworks and music revelry I just attended.
Let me set the scene for you: The Appalachian mountains are in the near distance at all sides, in all their azure, lumpy magnificence. The landscape along the single-lane highway is mostly green and golden pasture, with barns and farm homes sprinkled atop the hills, and star-spangled banners occasionally waving. Stately cows are dutifully munching the grass and being all cowy, like they do—like every good, American cow does.
A few miles outside the closest town, most of the 2,000 or so members of this bountiful, rural Virginian mountain county gathered this evening in a small, grassy valley to consume home-brewed libations and home-cooked succulency—to celebrate our freedom by freely choosing to eat and drink freely. God bless this country. God bless liberty!
It cost $20 per car to get into the festival. That might sound steep to you, but hey: fireworks ain't free. Also, the proceeds went to the local fire department, which is a good thing considering how dry it can get around these parts. One of these years a fireworks show will ignite a massive field and forest inferno that will devastate the entire county, so we had better start saving up.
There was a blues band on a small stage, complete with electrified guitars and bass, drums, a sax, and a well-intoxicated singer belting out and slurring our favorite anthems: "Ride, Sally, Ride"; that one that goes "Nah, Nah-Nah-Nah-Naaaah, Nah-Nah-Nah-Naaah Nah-Nah-Naaah Nah-Nah-Naaah, Nah-Nah-Nah-Naaaaah"; and others.
The music really made me think: too many people are too disconnected from the true meaning of our holidays. Thanksgiving isn't about football, it's about food. Halloween isn't about ghosts and black magic, it's about candy. Valentine's Day isn't about love or St. Valentine, it's about the colors red, pink, and magenta. And Independence Day isn't about the day America finally secured its independence, or the document stating our inalienable right to it, it's about being American. So what trait makes us American more than anything else? Being LOUD. And believe me, the event planners of Rappahannock County know that. Their PA goes up to 12, at least.
And so, once night fell and the crowd was about to explode with anticipation of the main act, the rockets blazed and bursted in air with a glare of reds, greens, purples, and golds, dazzling all who beheld it with its grandiosity, power, and all-American volume.
Many are too quick to judge Americans for being overly dramatic and overly simplistic. That may be true in some settings, but when it comes to a fireworks show, we're simply shooting for the stars; we have high standards, we take it seriously, and it shows. There was a rhythm and flow to the launching and explosions; there were adeptly layered and blended hues; the more spectacular fireworks were interspersed throughout the show so that they always took the audience by surprise; and there wasn't just one false finale, but TWO. When we put on a fireworks show, it's a work of art. An explosive work of art. A firework of art.
Ah, Americans. What mysteriously beautiful creatures. We sailed across the ocean to a strange new land, created a strange new identity, and constructed a new kind of society: one in which all people, strange and beautiful, are believed equally made, and are thus equally entitled to be free. And loud. And hungry and sparkling and drunk and creative and dorky and dramatic and...whatever! We’re a young country yet, and still working out the kinks. We’re still experimenting. Sometimes we falter and fail, sometimes we’re crude and cruel—and yes, once in a while, maybe a little too loud—but sometimes…we are positively dazzling.
No comments:
Post a Comment