It's been louder than usual around here this week. Between the impatient people who started setting off fireworks on the 1st and 2nd, and the absentminded people who didn't remember to do it until the 5th, it has been like being in the middle of some sort of war. That's the idea, I guess. The boys spent the 4th out watching fireworks with a friend, Willow and Jen spent it at home (Willow has developed an aversion to loud noises), and Sophie and I walked around the immediate neighborhood watching people illegally lighting fireworks in the street. Not my favorite holiday, with its imitation bombs and flag waving. It all strikes me as a little too shrill. It's always easier to wave a flag than it is to become involved in the ideals it supposedly represents. Just look at the voter turnout in the last few elections.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were no national boundaries and we had to look at the world as a whole instead of only concentrating on our own little piece of the puzzle. We are truly a global society, and we face a great many global problems that will continue to grow over the course or our lifetimes, but with the world divided into countries, and countries divided into states and provinces, which are in turn subdivided into smaller bits and pieces, it's hard to concentrate on the big picture and easier to export environmental degradation to some other section of the globe (for example - by importing lumber or exporting waste).

We are all truly in this together.

In my imagination I see a family in their backyard, waving their little flags and popping their little firecrackers while they drink beer and eat hotdogs. Afterwards, they pick up all the trash from their revelry and toss it over the fence into their neighbor's yard.

What if the fence wasn't there?

Rant over.

It has been cool this week, and I've mostly been off work, with the exception of a few hours yesterday spent manning the visitor's center up at Sanborn park. It turned out to be easy work, greeting visitors and answering questions. I got some reading done. Today I was interviewed for the job I already have (trying to get those benefits...) and was elated to discover that my car passed its smog test. I wouldn't want to export any air pollution, now would I?