Transcience, Idle Talk and Fireworks

Today's unpretentious musings will concern the existential meaning of Independence Day (happy 232nd, America!) fireworks. Fireworks are, first of all, shiny and flashy and go Boom! Which is to say, they're captivating and memorable and make an impression in the mind. What do the 4th of July fireworks that we go to see every year at the same time, often in the same place, do for us; is there some reason for their existence other than a fun little ritual (related thought: are there rituals that at least weren't at one point intended to serve a function?)

It would seem that there is. That we go to see the same flashy event every year impresses a sort of permanence on our consciousness. An event that might seem objectively a bit silly ends up leaving the thought: we've always done this, our parents did this, their parents did this...etc, etc. It is by these repeated little events that a coherence is created in our lives; most of us do not pay any attention to how this world we've fallen into has risen up around us and seems as if its always been here.

We know, however, that there will not always be fireworks exploding above county parks in the warm July night. There will not always be irresponsible parents, who lounge with Mike's Hard Lemonades in hand, allowing their children to run too near bottle rockets in nicely paved streets. All of these things will pass - a certain friend of mine might argues that, as the sleepy security of Western society is built on people whom we have forced to live in perpetual chaos, that it ought to pass - and fireworks form a part of the web which tries to keep us from remembering our coming deaths, and the death of our society.

This is all probably necessary. I think we can draw one conclusion for action here: pay attention! - we Western citizens have fallen into something special. Americans especially - our homeland has actually been pretty secure for 150 years now. That's remarkable - a remarkable gift - and it should be appreciated while it lasts.