MINI HOLIDAYS

I'm not going any where interesting this year. Instead of traveling I'll be paying off my periodontist (have I mentioned this yet?). So, I look forward to mini-holidays. This weekend comes to mind: Tuesday is the 4th of July, Independence Day. It's a paid holiday at work, plus our office will be closed on Monday. Since I'm not hoarding my vacation days for a tropical destination, I've opted to take Monday as paid personal time. Four days off, two paid for...not bad.

In addition, I'm taking care of some lovely American Eskimo dogs in Burien for the next couple of weeks - kind of a mini-holiday - a holiday made more festive by the presence of a Jacuzzi. Ahhh, warm sweet water on my aching knees...I'm really looking forward to it.

But what of this Independence Day? In Seattle it will be the second one in a row with no rain, thereby skewing the average of rainy Independence Days... But I wonder - would we have been better off as a colony of Great Britain? Would the terrorists be more sympathetic to us as country not exactly oppressed, but not big and independent and belligerant and bullying? Would we be more polite, like our neighbors to the north? Would we feel more a part of the community of the world? I feel as an individual, part of the global community, I think my travels and studies helped in this, but I don't feel like my country is a part of the global community. It feels more like we are the global overlord (or the wannabe overlord).

We can't change history (though it can be re-written) and I don't want to - except for maybe that part where our current President lied to us and pre-emptively invaded another country in order to "liberate" it. Do you wonder if liberation would've been sweeter for Iraqis if they'd been allowed to do it themselves? Is liberation by the dominant global power just another form of subjugation? These are just things I think about and questions I ask myself. Do you think that history in ten, twenty, fifty, or one hundred years will look back favorably on George W. Bush and the Iraq war, or will it be a dark spot in our textbooks - a time of shame, a mistake, something for which our children's children will be apologizing.

Just some thoughts. Enjoy your sweet independence today, Tuesday, every day. And don't play with fireworks!