YAY! It's almost time for fireworks. I love fireworks. I can remember as a kid everybody in the neighborhood getting out their lawn chairs and lining the street for a heck of a show. Complete with kids using sparklers, the pre-show for the little kids of whisling petes and fountains and always the big grand finale of every illegal firework that was bought going off at once. It was beautiful. I am looking forward to passing on this tradition to our kids.
This year's show will not the three ring circus of the bay area (we sat up in the hills of marin watching shows in berkeley, 2 shows in San Francisco and Sausalito all at the same time) or Thunder over Louisville, but this year we have a lawn and a grill. BIG upgrades.
This year will be like the good ol' small town celebration of Montreat, NC complete with the parade and crepe paper decorated little red wagons with kids being pulled by their parents. Oh and Alexis' just mentioned I travel alot.
The funny part about the Fourth of July is that for me it is about fireworks. As I sat around the staff meeting last weekend preparing for worship, it became clear that for others it is about much more. The decisions about how many patriotic hymns to put in? do we put them in as a faith organization? what kind of language do we use?
Both Alexis and I have family in the military far away. Even one is unable to communicate with his wife who is pregnant and will deliver before he is scheduled to come back to the US. People all over this country will be celebrating the people who are serving this country, but I still like the fireworks. It is a celebration of freedom for me.
As people of faith what does the 4th of July mean? What does it mean to be patriotic?
Little Known Fact about fireworks shows:
The Macy's Show in New York (named as one of the best shows in the world)
Number of shells: 30,000 (55 times more fireworks than any average US fireworks show)
Speed of explosion: over 1000 shells bursting per minute
Miles of wiring needed to synchronize the show to music: 10
Feet of steel and fiberglass to launch shells: 63,000
Cost of average show: $75,000++
That's a lot of money to just have it go up in smoke.
2 comments:
It's an interesting thing to think about that despite constantly praying for the safety of our armed forces and for peace on earth I forget what the 4th is supposed to be about and tend to enjoy the BBQ, beer, and fireworks. Although the 4th is about our independence not some war for oil and power orchestrated by skippy mcDumbass and his band of merry morons.
As a kid we usually watched the Boston Pops play the 1812 Overture set to fireworks on the 4th. I got to experience Thunder over Louisville in 2003, just after we had declared war on Iraq. What a strange world that I could enjoy watching these beautiful explosions while the same sounds mean announce destruction to my brothers and sisters in Bagdad.
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