Once Upon a Time on Independence Day

I didn't have any cookouts to attend today. That was fine with me, because, once again, I wasn't feeling so hot. Instead, I sought refuge at the budget movie theater for the afternoon. I drove out intending to see Mirror, Mirror, but after I purchased my ticket and walked away from the counter, I realized I'd said "The Lorax" instead. It had caught my eye on the marquee on the way in and I was distracted.

The Lorax was worth seeing, it's a good message on Independence Day, especially in light of the current tug-of-war between individual rights and the common good. Not to mention knitting! Once I left the theater, I realized I could still see a showing of Mirror, Mirror, so I stayed and did that as well. The theater has air conditioning, I do not. I loved the retelling of the story, the fact that I managed to pull the name Sean Bean out of my head appropriately, and the production number that ran during the credits. At $2.50 a movie, it was an afternoon well-spent.

In the evening I went to an outdoor concert by a local chamber orchestra. The main piece they did was Peter and the Wolf, so I ended up having a day filled with fairy tales and fables, completely unintended. I love when days work out that way.

I spent a little time thinking about independence and whether we are truly living up to the ideals set forth by our founding fathers (I don't think we are) and whether we really are, or should be, the greatest nation on earth (I don't think so, to both points. The fact that we, as a nation, feel destined by some higher power, to be better than and basically have control over, every other nation on earth feels like the height of arrogance to me). I think we need to learn to better to take care of people in need rather than pushing this economic every man for himself, dog-eat-dog, system we have in place at the moment.

As far as personal independence, there are things I'm thinking about that I hope I can work out sooner rather than later.

Right now, the neighbors are setting off fireworks and I'm the tiniest bit concerned about my house catching fire, because I live on a street of tightly-spaced row homes with tiny back yards and I can't imagine where the sparks are going, if not on our roofs, and I keep getting whiffs of sulfur.