The only customer thus far was a deranged bum with an armload of tattered newspaper wondering what time it was. The weather is spotless, our traditional early morning cloud cover having given up its occupation and retreated to wherever marine layers go in the off season.
Unpatriotic America-hating liberal that I am, I forgot it was a holiday. Which means going without coffee, since Christie seizes every opportunity to close up shop next door. I'm sacrificing as well as working hard. I feel a budding kinship with George Washington's freedom fighters at Valley Forge.
Except it's summer in California instead of winter in Pennsylvania and I'm working retail instead of going to war against the snappily dressed army of a global military power.
I like the 4th.
Any summer holiday involving liquor and BBQ is alright with me, and later tonight we'll be rowing upriver using those most admirable paddles.
The bigger picture this year is problematic, as the things I find admirable and worth celebrating about my country (tolerance, openness, optimism) are currently out of fashion.
I keep waiting for some bold Dorothy to upend a bucket of water at a press conference and rescue my country in a pillar of steam, but the flying monkeys and poison trees are far more adept at protecting the castle nowadays.
Lacking such a deus ex machina, comfort is left to the poets.
Here are some appropriate lines from the doomed Elliot Smith for America's bar mitzvah:
i saw you in a perfect place
it's gonna happen soon but not today
so go to sleep and make the change
i'll meet you here tomorrow
independence day
independence day
independence day
No comments:
Post a Comment