4th of July

My Independence Day usually involves me sitting in the back of a truck at the ranch watching fireworks in the distance. I'm usually parked in the back field with the horses, and the noise and sporadic lights frighten them. Actually, one of my fondest memories occurred during one of these stampedes. It was a brief moment, preserved only in my memory. Fireworks lit up the western sky, and silhouetted against them were a herd of these running horses. It is one of the most treasured sights I have witnessed, and had I been prepared with a camera it would have made one hell of a picture. Somehow though, I like it better viewed over the years through memory alone. It becomes all the more rare and beautiful for me.

This fourth of July was spent in the city. I actually had no concrete plans. I decided to go jogging, but was stopped in my tracks when I got to the track and saw that people were already lining up on the hill for the impending fireworks. No way was I going to run in front of an audience. I was talking to my new friend Lisa at the time, and we made an impromptu plan to grab some beer and join the crowd.

Upon returning from HEB (complete with beer and "Bubba" hat) we decided to sit instead on the hill behind East Hall. There was no crowd here, and the grass was overgrown. Occasionally we'd stumble upon areas of flattened growth where deer had slept. It was a peaceful oasis of the natural which I've missed so much since leaving my home in the middle of nowhere. Lisa and I spent the evening watching the fireworks from Town Lake and bemoaning the absence of a bottle opener. We settled for drinking juice instead.

Though I celebrated in the standard young American way, I was thinking in the back of my mind about a note from Professor Ed Shirley I had read earlier that day. I don't know if this link will work, but if you have facebook visit his page and read the note titled "Happy Independence Day". I found it very intriguing.