It’s one thing to go from complete strangers to friends – people do that every day. But to go from strangers to spending two holidays together in nine months? That right there is an accomplishment worthy of celebration.

Which, speaking of celebration, how about that wonderful Fourth of July weekend? I dare say it was my favorite version of the holiday since FDR’s epic bash in 1938. [Redact] offered the perfect mix of structure and freedom, of catching-up and exploration on one’s own. Those balances are oh so challenging to pull off well. Not so for the [Redact]. Or, I guess I got a little ahead of myself in the excitement of recollection, for the [Redact] may be a glorious group of people, but they aren’t gods. So, executing [Redact] had to have been challenging (damn mortality), it was just that they made it look easy.

And that all led to it feeling easy for this [Redact] participant. The food, the drinks, the seating arrangements, the water temperature (!!!), the fireworks (dangerous, but still easy), the hyper-convenient ETHS, the technology in ETHS (when does that stuff ever work flawlessly?), the NYC-wishes-it-had-this [Redact], and, of course, the people.

Because, let’s be honest here, all that other stuff is nice, but if one is celebrating his freedom with people who are just o.k., well that seems like quite a waste, so much so that Jefferson et al. probably would have said, “Naw, we are happy to remain your colony. We don’t really like freedom that much.”

Good thing they knew we would be wise enough to use freedom intelligently.

Thanks.