Independence Day

Yesterday, for the first time in months, I spent hours outside. I weeded the front yard and started on the back.

Free. Free. Free.

We've been getting so much rain every single day for so long that everyone is swallowed up by plant growth. The water makes everything grow phenomenally fast. At the same time, you can't get out to weed or mow lawns - because it's raining.

And here we are, with a holiday upon us, and everyone is all embarrassed because their yards look like weed junkyards.

but WAIT! That surely means...I'm NOT the only one!

So me, I settled in to weed at my own pace, not worrying about what others thought of my efforts. (Or tardiness thereof.)

Not that I was so worried about that, anyway.

I stayed up way past my bedtime. My back yard fence neighbor, Peter, came out in his yard, oh I've missed him. It's Peter's mango tree. We talked mangoes, and squirrels and blue jays eating the mangoes, plus possums and coons, and the caterpillars eating up our Snow on the Mountain shrubs

He's one of these horribly overachieving multitalented people. He acts, sings, dances; he's handsome and sweet and funny and very, very smart. He's a jeweler in both gems and metals, and was a consultant to the Met in New York. He's also a world-class painter.

And broke.

Which is the only way I can say, Just like me.

So I told him about my plans to have a Yard and Plant Sale - which unbeknownst to Peter, include him too. I decided on the weekend of the 16th instead of the 9th; I'm slow, and I could have twice as many plants ready to sell if I waited just that bit. He said, Good idea, give it another week. When you push things too hard they break.

See? Smart.

I told him I want to do this twice a year, which is the limit where we live, and that I'd be happy to sell anything for him if he'd like, he doesn't have to be there. He has lots of plants he can put in. Lots of baby mango trees, coming up volunteer. ;-)

And...although as I told him, he's WAY too good for this...he might put together some simple inexpensive sketches to sell, too. And/or maybe bring one of his "real" works out. So many of our neighbors are blessed with both excellent taste and excellent bank accounts these days - no reason to assume a pricier work won't sell. Who knows, he may even get a commission out of it. I tell you, his portraits are breathtaking, extraordinarily fine.

I told him, --If not this sale, then the next one, in fall - we'll have a few months to get our plants growing big by then - you will make enough money to buy a computer. You must get a computer, Peter. You have to read my blog. And start your own.

What it all comes back to, you see, is independence.

Today I think of all of us who want more independence in our lives. Against the backdrop of our nation's Independence Day, that glorious ideal we grew up with, I put all of us as individuals. I say to us all, Be more independent. Be as strong and free as you can be.

Is it all entirely in our control? Well...Yes and no. Yesterday my health gave me my "Get Out of Jail Free" card. But when illness turns me into an involuntary shut-in, it still can't imprison my spirit. Even when it shuts me up. And I have this blessing that many other disabled people don't: sooner or later, I get better enough to get out of bed, and then to go outside again. I treasure that freedom, I treasure that day. I value it tremendously, when others don't even feel the goodness of what they have. So tell me: who's better off?

Poverty can have a perverse sort of freedom to it. In some societies, not even so perverse. But finding that key to not letting your possessions own you is much harder in our urbanized society. It's become difficult to even grow our own food, especially meat, much less get by without cash for rent or mortgage payments, electricity, water bills.

Almost everyone I know and care about has suffered real financial setbacks in the last few years. It affects our independence. We struggle. We try everything we can think of - work more, spend less, take classes, work out debt, even sell the house. Then maybe we think of having a Yard and Plant Sale, too. No shame in that. Fun, actually.

In the meantime, I send my thoughts out to all you people - millions of parents, certainly mine, are among them - who are working harder than they should because they're helping out their grown children and other loved ones who've been hit bad by economic setbacks.

kmom and kdad, I promise you, we're almost done, almost out of this 2 1/2 year hole. It won't be much longer now, and we'll have a good chunk of our independence back. Soon, soon, we can support our own selves the only way we really want to: by working. And when our independence returns, we can stop impinging on yours.

To those of you who came here to America seeking that independence - including my own fine man - I say, Welcome. Welcome to this great country. I don't care why you came here - I mean, as long as the reasons were righteous enough to exclude committing crimes here, or escaping punishment for crime there, of course.

If your reasons were economic, fine. That's why most of our own forebears came here, and it's hypocritical to say you should only come here to escape ideologies we dislike. You'll hear some say that immigration hurts our economy. Bogus. We really need it to thrive. You help us, not hurt us; and if your presence feeds into the competitive cycle, what's more American than competitive markets?

Some of those naysayers are the same people who believe this idiot called Laffer, who thinks that rich and powerful persons and companies let their money flow downhill to working people. (Have you ever seen them do that?) This is what happens when people with no training or experience in real-world economics are presented with something that Sounds Good. I won't tell you why just now, but I can claim some serious expertise in that field, and l'm here to tell you, that theory is so bogus it's actually not even an economic theory.

Don't want a degree in economics? I don't blame you. Here's a shortcut. I call it, Look In and Look Out. 1. Look In your wallet. Is there money in there? 2. Look Out to your friends, acquaintances, neighbors. Are they able to pay their bills?

The answers to those two questions will provide about 90% of the information you need to understand how the economy's going. And when you vote? (and DO. It's FUN!) here's a nice American saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. If a politician tanks a robust, healthy economy, don't vote for them again.

It's not all economics, of course. If you wondered if things like xenophobia and bigotry are behind anti-immigration feelings, sometimes you're right. Only sometimes, though, because really we're not all like that. Others may notice that immigrants - maybe believing in those principles of free speech and independent thought - tend to speak their minds much more freely than many Americans do these days. That'll scare some right there. Not me. That's another reason this country needs you all, and why I say welcome.

Sometimes it takes immigrants to remind us why we're a great country. Not perfect, no. But great. And seeing this country I love so much with clear eyes, including and forgiving her faults, means I love her at least as much as those who insist she's perfect, when no one on earth ever is.

To our forces, those in the armed services and contractors too: I know good and well that you're not robots who think with one mind and speak with one voice. I myself am adamantly opposed to the war in Iraq, and always have been. However, I have never, ever been opposed to you.

Whatever the reason you're over there, whether it's because you truly believe this is essential to our freedom, or for sympathy for Iraqis; for economic reasons, including that education awaiting you on your return; or because you were swept up in the fervor and are stuck there now; or never believed it was right but said, That's my job, it's time to go do it - I don't care; you are entitled, absolutely, to your own reasons, your own beliefs. I support you in your efforts - all your righteous efforts, understand - and I hope so much for your safe and whole return.

To those who felt their belief system tilt and shatter - including you who experienced it when you were told to shut up, to no longer voice your opinions to reporters - you have my special sympathy. You know there are those who would despise you, would call you unpatriotic, would say if you disagree with your president you aren't a Real American. I am not one of them, and I believe those people are quite wrong.

Thinking for yourself, speaking freely, believing in truth - those things mean independence. This day is for all of you, whatever side(s) you come down on.

To the little kid in all of us, eating our bar-b-q's and corn on the cob, running around with sparklers and spitting watermelon seeds - Enjoy the holiday. That's what it's there for, too. A real holiday is something for independent people; if you're not independent, you can't really let loose.

And enjoy the fireworks tonight. I love them, myself; but I can't go there any more, and I have to check out now. I'm afraid I've become a terrible killjoy over the illegal fireworks and shooting issue, so I won't burden you with my thoughts on that topic on this day of pleasure. Except to say I will try really, really hard this year not to call the cops unless the bottle rockets or bullets actually come IN one of the dozens of windows in my house. And I hope that Vietnam vet down the street can stay cool this year, too.

It looks like, here on the 4th, we're going to have the first day without any hard rain - a real-for-real Full Sun Day - since any of us can even remember.

Happy Independence Day!