Holiday Weekend

Dear Only Cause I Would Give My Life For (see, you didn't think I was a patriot),

Thank you for creating a barbecue/beach/pool holiday risen from the ashes of all the people who died creating you and spending days in airless, probably humid, rooms writing the rules by which you would be governed. I know this isn't the place to judge you for being vague enough that lots of idiots could read you years later and decide that what you really meant to say was no Mexicans and no gays and especially no gay Mexicans, but next time, try to put in a clause or something that says blowhards of the future should not try to craft their ridiculous messages on top of yours.

Thank you for letting me mouth off about a lot of nonsense like cellphones on trains and inefficient cable television providers. Thank you for letting other people mouth off about gay Mexicans. It provides humor and also ensures that I may continue to mouth off about whatever strikes my fancy. And thanks for letting the gay Mexicans that do live have things like due process.

Thanks for fireworks. I guess they are meant to remind us of cannons and other things that go bang, but they're really pretty and they let me hold devoted partner's hand as we look up into the sky and see pretty colors. It's kind of romantic and also kind of nostalgic, remembering the fireworks of past years.

Thanks for the day off. Devoted partner could use it and he's really always quite happy when it comes around. It's true, sometimes I get a little antsy about receiving important mail a day late (catalogs, magazines, bills, mail addressed to other people), but then I remember that if the mailman isn't working, neither am I.

Thanks for my passport that allows me to visit other places and then come back home. I like being away, but I like knowing this is the place I get to come back to. Sure, I could spend some time living elsewhere, but this is home and I wouldn't trade it.

And thanks for giving us a work in progress. Grand experiment indeed. It's nice to know you people didn't think you had all the answers and trusted us, albeit at times naively, to work out the kinks as they cropped up. The outline you provided makes me fairly certain that things will work out in the end, cable news notwithstanding. And planning for evolution of a society is pretty unconventional; admitting you don't, right this second, have all the answers for all time...that's revolutionary.

So while I might not be thinking all of this as I wipe burger grease from my chin, I'm thinking about it now, and I think about it more often than you might imagine. Thinking outside the box, you proved, isn't a vice, and I think the result of your hard work proved it can be most virtuous. You weren't perfect, and neither are we, but I like to think we're all trying.

Love,

Yelena