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| Fireworks in the Snow PC: Aaron Springston |
Fireworks. Decades ago when I was a child, we would look forward to 10 or 20 firecrackers (which we would light with fear and excitement), a sparkler or two apiece (my personal favorite), and then an adult would set off a Roman candle for the big finale. We celebrated the freedom we believed our country was founded upon, and went to bed full of expectations of good. Now, in 2020, I am hearing fireworks crackling (illegally) all over town the night before Independence Day, and I am pondering what became of the simpler celebrations from decades ago. Everything has gone the way of fireworks: too much, too soon, too long. Our values have shifted into the high gear of hyper-materialism, and I see our excessive consumption of fireworks as a perfect example of what we have done with everything. We thought there was an endless supply of gasoline, so we began owning and driving multiple vehicles more and more miles every passing year, until we had superhighways built all across our land, constantly filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Our grocery stores ballooned into obscene orgies of processed foods and plastics, highlighted by sugar and caffeine drinks in a poisonous-looking array of colors. I think we all long for a simpler, more honest way of living. And we can have it! On this day of Independence, let’s celebrate the re-inventing of our country. America has always led the world with its innovative thinking, and now is the time for us to do it again!
"The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page VII:13
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