Until there's a national holiday explicitly about hanging out with friends and family, eating and drinking, and watching television marathons, it's doubtful that everyone will be "true to the spirit" of whatever reason they're not going to work. Still, I always try.

Yesterday was the 4^th of July and time was running out. I had already attended an exhaustingly spectacular party (very cleverly scheduled for the night before, so everyone might sleep in) and thought that, somehow, I would probably end up at a barbecue or beneath a sky of fireworks. That never quite happened—it may have required some amount of effort greater than zero.

Night fell and I was alone. Random firecrackers broke the silence, like the plaintive oboe tuning an orchestra. Soon bottle-rockets joined. When I heard the first explosions, I went up the back stairs as high as possible. The big guys were being fired off all over, some beyond distant hills revealing only a colorful halo and a low rumble many seconds later, others were close enough to set off car alarms on my street but fiendishly obscured by Victorian architecture. Small arms fire (emitting showers of sparks and report) broke out in neighborhood backyards.

In short, I was in the middle of a war zone. I let myself sink into the moment. Such chaos! Had the Brits captured the port? Could we still outflank them on the north field? Would our powder supply hold? Doth our star-spangled banner yet wave?

Suddenly, I remembered that July 4^th, 1776 was actually just the writing of the Declaration of Independence, not our actual achieving of it (marked by the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3^rd, 1783). Given that historical tidbit, the best way to celebrate our Independence day while remaining "true to the spirit" of the holiday, would be an irreverent blog post.