Not sure where to put this, so I'll put it here. It's sorta philosophical. I was stoned last night, listening to the storm, as well as the firecrackers going off all over the neighborhood. It was interesting because it seemed such a small, sad imitation to the thunder. I was a bit annoyed, I'd smoked for the effect it would have on me as I watched the lightning and listened to the rain and thunder; but then I reminded myself it's just sort of a natural human impulse to make our mark, to say "I was here" or more realistically, "I AM here". I got to thinking how we have celebrations for this purpose, but then realized how arbitrary it all is. New Years Eve, for example. What a random date. The new year used to coincide with a solstice or equinox or something, now, just a number on a piece of paper. Even the 4th of July is sort of random. There'd been fighting already going on for a while by the time the Declaration was done. So it almost seems like these holidays are a sort of sanctioned celebration where the authorities let us make some noise, vent some steam and then, return to being quiet citizens. Do you think that such behavior would be less tolerated if one was to do it randomly, say, april 10?
Haha, if you light off fireworks on April 10 then you better have a damn good reason for doing so, or else you would probably get arrested.
good point. i'm from england and whenever we have a national holiday everyone just gets drunk. it doesnt matter what it is, christmas, easter, new years - ask ANYONE what they're doing and they all say they're getting hammered. no gives a shit about the meaning of holidays anymore, it just gives them a chance to have a day or so to forget about the life they hate so much.
Snowman, that's my point, and it's especially ironic because we preach freedom and liberty on the 4th of July, but we are only free to light fireworks on that one day (and the few days around it). And mart, yeah, same here, every holiday is an excuse to get drunk. No one really thinks about the meaning of the holidays anymore. No one cares about the US gaining it's independance, no one even mentioned it all day. It's just an excuse to party.
