A Quiet 4th of July

Mainly puttered in the garden and around the house, read the Blogs and mourned the State of Our United States. There was a House cook-out at around six. David and I threw some stuff on the grill and chatted with Robin's dance friends. The kids were around, but not really interacting much with grown-ups. The folk singing part of the party didn't seem to be getting started, and I drifted back to my own side of the duplex with one ear cocked to join in if it did. Glued to my computer, I didn't hear the people on the other side set out for the near-by park to watch Newton's fireworks. When I saw the Newton fireworks in the distance and realized that the others had gone and that David was not going to emerge from his basement office to join me in walking to where we could see, I turned on the TV to watch the Boston Pops 4th-- a show guaranteed to annoy me to some degree because I Don't Like Rock or Most Pop. Go away, Arrowsmith guys! Robin was back from the Newton fireworks by this time, and willing to watch Arrowsmith because she went to school with the Boston member's brother. I found I couldn't sing along with the Pops patriotic sing-along. It is pretty silly to sing along with thousands of people who are about six miles away. Silly or not, I know all the words by heart and usually I do sing, and enjoy it. But the interminable indefensible war has o'crowed my spirit. Shortly after this the TV fireworks came on and now David appeared to watch along with me. There are new colors and shapes since the last time we watched fireworks. Too much of it reminds me of cities besieged.