July 3rd

Happy Independence Eve.

This is the day when potential remained potential for the last time. Tomorrow would bring the fireworks (although apparently, like any real effort, the British downplayed it. “Oh sure, he’s going to the gym.”)

I’m going to see the Mike Rowe movie Something to Stand For this evening. He said patriotism is at a low.

Now that’s a problem ideally suited for a blogger like me. “Patriotism is at a low. What a pity.”

I find myself lamenting this, and other big, abstract societal topics often. It’s easier than doing the dishes.

When a fraction of that thought gets converted into action, it can move ya to tears.

***

I’m ashamed to say I’ve sat through the anthem. I found one little corner of a civilization lacking, disagreed with it, and thought it better the whole thing burned down. It’s a good thing nobody paid attention to me when I was a teenager. Yes, the youth are the future. Sometimes often, we were idiots. Putting it kindly: I had failed to grasp the whole picture. (I like the example of a birthday party. I don’t know one person who is without flaw–except that one guy a long time ago–but still celebrate their existence with a hearty song and some cake.)

It was at the VA home that I finally got the concept of the flag. I had been standing for the anthem for years by then, but still had a lot to learn. I’d spin records for these men, sitting rusting in their wheelchairs like retired gears of war. We grew to be great friends. Their stories, man, their stories…and the sacrifice.

One day, the gig wasn’t in the usual place, and we didn’t have the flag to salute. So we saluted an empty spot on the wall, sang to it, and that white blankness came alive with the idea of what the flag represented.

Carl Jung is talking about the difference between a sign and a symbol in his Man and his Symbols volume I’m reading over dinner. The sign is always less than what it points to, and is a fabrication of conscious thought. The symbol is more than we understand, yielding only bits and pieces.

***

I found my inner voice grousing about the decline of America and other such things recently, and then a funny little idea piped up. “Why not play ‘em the national anthem?” So I looked down at my DJ board, said a few words into the microphone, and pushed play.

Old men and women who could barely walk got their exercise in for the day by standing.

Now I play it all the time.

This morning saw an “independence day eve” party at a local nursing home. Oh did we sing it. And right at the end, suddenly, I saw the little flags on every table.

Lee Greenwood sang about how he was proud to be an American. I started passing out the flags, handing the first one to the air force vet sitting in the front row. Then another guy extended a gnarled hand that could barely hold anything, but he grasped that flag. And another, and another. The staffers joined in. A sea of little flags.

Hold it together, Josh. Something in my eye. Not in front of the fellas.

We waved them, all of us, and sang.

If things are low, if times are tough, if the outlook is bleak…

Now’s an excellent time to start. (Whatever needs to be started…and I usually know exactly what that is, if I listen close enough.)

I bought a flag on the way home, and put it on my front porch.

But then I bought another little one to always display in my DJ booth.

And then I bought one for the chickens, making them a little stand for their coop. They seemed to like Lee Greenwood, too.

Happy Independence Day eve.

–Josh