independence

Summer in Minneapolis is not what I expected. People literally use the word "sticky" to describe the weather here. I've only used that adjective in conjunction with melted candy, pine gum, or the time I cleaned out my boyfriend's (now husband's) car drink holder. But man, I'll tell you, it suits the summer here.

Now, I need to clarify that the summer in Minnesota has already been a thousand times better than the winter and we are actually having a pretty great time out here. We've been camping, swimming, biking, kind of hiking, and rock climbing. That being said, it is sticky. Even at 10p last night ...it was sticky.

We, along with the entire city of Minneapolis, lined up on the banks of the Mississippi to watch the firework show. We agreed that we had seen better fireworks, complained about the traffic and crowds, and commiserated over the wall of boiling water that is the atmosphere while being pressed up against people that we would otherwise never associate with.

There were people wearing trench coats and people wearing...well...basically nothing. All colors and shapes were present as were languages and music. Different parenting styles and social etiquette were manifested, all sexualities were represented, all modes of transportation were in use, and all ages were accounted for. I've never been a part of such a mix of people. And as I stood there and watched fireworks and thought about my country, I realized that I don't agree with anyone on everything, but that the great thing about America is that I don't have to.

I don't have to agree with you on anything, and you don't have to agree with me. You cannot force me to live the way you do, and I can't do the same with you. No matter how much you disagree with my opinions and life and appearance and values, I'm allowed to be that way. And more importantly, you're allowed the same.

We're all Americans, but that doesn't mean we're all the same.
We're all different, but we're also all Americans.

We can protest and shout that the other side of the aisle is wrong, that other religions are confused, that all ethnicity but ours is close minded - or whatever it is that we keep shouting and protesting about. But why not bond over what we have in common - being human, being alive, being American - rather than fight over our differences? Because no matter how different, we all like to take videos of fireworks on the day our country declared its independence.

peace and United States of America
rrww