Fireworks Celebrate America's Birthday As Family
As I’m writing this, fireworks are just starting to pop in my neighborhood. It’s dusk, too early for the really cool ones, but lots of people are making noise. It’s Independence Day tomorrow, a celebratory Fourth of July weekend. And like all proud families, the population of our country gets to celebrate a very important birthday tomorrow.
Birthday parties for people often include presents, a gathering of people, and hopefully a lot of dessert. But it’s about more than just getting a year older. The party is about celebrating the existence of that special person. It’s a nice excuse for a party, but you are really just happy to have that person around you. You are better for having known them no matter what their age.
I think that strikes a similarity to our nation’s Independence Day. It’s a nice excuse to blow off fireworks and crack out the grill, but really we are all just so happy our country and liberties exist in such a unique way. We Americans are a big family. We may not agree all the time, we may not even like everyone in the group, but we are all better because we exist as this special family.
You can sense patriotism any time of the year, but it always gets a bigger focus on this holiday. What would have happened if the young American military didn’t win the Revolutionary War? Would we have done it later, or given up? Where would our ancestors have gone if America didn’t exist? These are new thoughts to me - it’s been so long since that critical time we’ve all just thought of America as “automatic”.
But no, the early American patriots banded together and had a common purpose. They acted as a close family acts when the chips are down. They pulled together and stuck it out through thick and thin. Their beliefs and bonds were so strong. If they had let their personal differences get the better of them, America as we know it might not be here today.
So when I listen to the whizzing rockets and watch the displays in my neighborhood this weekend, I’m going to think about family. Not just the people in my house or in my photo album, but my entire American family. We are so lucky to be able to celebrate our special birthday every year. Go out and really celebrate tomorrow, not just with burgers and fireworks, but in your heart.
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My hope is that the Fourth of July becomes a celebration less of the might of nations, and more of the possibility for freedom and friendship for which men and women who sacrifice their energy and sometimes their lives.
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