Random Thoughts on a 4th of July night...
So, I watched my first full 4th of July parade in ages, this year. I actually kind of broke with tradition last year...due to the timing of the holiday, I was actually changing over films at the movie theater the day of the parade, so when I got done and came downstairs, the parade was in full swing. This year, I was done a couple of days before the parade...and for the first time in a decade, I didn't have to be at the park early. I wasn't due at the park until 4:15 in the afternoon. So I decided to take the time to find out what the 4th of July in Kaysville is like, when it's not dominated by the frustration of trying to find a route from my apartment to the park at the same time everyone is packing up to go home from the parade.
I had an unexpected realization, as I watched the parade go by. In the early Middle Ages, when localities would produce passion plays and cycles, the guilds would take responsibility for a certain aspect of the production...they'd build the set, such as it was, and set up any needed effects and the like. It was, for the guilds, a way of demonstrating their prowess and largesse...advertising, essentially.
Nobody around here does anything of that nature anymore, in terms of the actual productions...but there are contemporary analogs to the practice. Putting a float in the hometown parade is perhaps at the top of that list.
This realization dawned on me as I was musing on the different nature of some of the floats...everything ranging from the company's delivery truck festooned with crepe paper and bunting to honest-to-goodness self-propelled floats (though most of them were more along the lines of a flatbed trailer with minimal decorations being pulled by the owner's pickup...) It was when I wondered why some companies would put so much time and money into something that would only be used once or maybe twice a year (because they might drag the same thing out for the Homecoming parade, I've never been in town for that one)...and I realized that putting your name on a fancy float, or getting your company logo printed on a decal that you could stick to the door of your truck, was a way to put a positive spin on your company..."We LOVE our community...and we can afford to indulge in symbolic gestures, too...so bring your business to us!"
Cynical, I know. I also know there are some of them that did it simply for the fun of being in the parade (because, hey, I'll admit it...I've done parades before, too, with no ulterior motive but simply the desire to have a good time). But regardless of the 'why', the parade has become the modern-day version of the passion play, in terms of businesses and groups strutting their stuff for the world to see.
On a totally unrelated note--my dad's family had its annual reunion a week ago. Out of Dad's family, there are only two siblings left (Dad passed away twelve years ago)...and I'm not sure how long those two will be with us. Aside from the obvious realization that, out of a family of seven (total), only two of the kids are still left and that means that the hourglass is running out, there was also the discussion my uncle had with me...
At one point, I'd been walking back and forth to my car, rounding some stuff up, and my uncle walked up to me and asked how I was doing. In and of itself, this is hardly remarkable...he's done that at every family reunion for years. He's the family's elder statesman, the patriarch overseeing all of us, and he takes his responsibilities very seriously in that respect and has always been asking how people are doing, how he can help, or trying to get some of us lined up to solve each others' problems in some way.
What he hasn't done very often in the past is give me a serious heart-to-heart discussion of how the two of us relate to each other, from his side of it. And as he was talking to me, about how proud of me he was, and how he appreciated the patience and compassion he'd always seen from me, and felt like his life had been enriched from my having been a part of it...I couldn't escape the impression that he was saying goodbye. I'm not sure how old he is...Dad was the youngest in the family, and was in his late 60's when he passed away, so my uncle must be in his mid or late 80's now...and while he's aged well, time has been taking its toll on him rather heavily the last few years. It's kind of hard to see...I have memories of our families going out trail-riding on motorcycles, and a lot of other recollections of him being a very spry, active guy with a hint of mischief in his eye, and seeing him now, barely able to get around with a cane and looking very fragile, I can only imagine that, in his mind, he's tired and ready to move on. I also know that he would do so with one major regret--that he's been unable to get my mom and my sister reconciled with each other. There were a lot of bridges burned in our family a few years ago...and while some of those chasms have been closed again, that particular one is steadfast. It's a source of pain to him, because our family has always been so close in the past...and also because the rest of us have managed to forgive and move on...but both my mom and my sister are very stubborn people.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope it wasn't goodbye. His words meant a lot to me--for all that I'm pretty content with who I am as a person, I know that there are some choices I've made in my life that aren't necessarily what my family would have wanted for me, and hearing from him that he was proud of the man I've become settled that sense of agitation for me. I hope that his faith somehow manages to move the mountain it will take to fill the gap between my mom and my sister (and that he's alive and well enough to see it happen and enjoy that moment of rest...I'd really hate for that to be his version of Moses not being allowed to enter the Holy Land after forty years in the desert...)
But if it was goodbye, I'm glad he took the time to say it. He's always been a very wise, perceptive man, in my experience, and I'm massively grateful for his example in my life.
So, I watched my first full 4th of July parade in ages, this year. I actually kind of broke with tradition last year...due to the timing of the holiday, I was actually changing over films at the movie theater the day of the parade, so when I got done and came downstairs, the parade was in full swing. This year, I was done a couple of days before the parade...and for the first time in a decade, I didn't have to be at the park early. I wasn't due at the park until 4:15 in the afternoon. So I decided to take the time to find out what the 4th of July in Kaysville is like, when it's not dominated by the frustration of trying to find a route from my apartment to the park at the same time everyone is packing up to go home from the parade.
I had an unexpected realization, as I watched the parade go by. In the early Middle Ages, when localities would produce passion plays and cycles, the guilds would take responsibility for a certain aspect of the production...they'd build the set, such as it was, and set up any needed effects and the like. It was, for the guilds, a way of demonstrating their prowess and largesse...advertising, essentially.
Nobody around here does anything of that nature anymore, in terms of the actual productions...but there are contemporary analogs to the practice. Putting a float in the hometown parade is perhaps at the top of that list.
This realization dawned on me as I was musing on the different nature of some of the floats...everything ranging from the company's delivery truck festooned with crepe paper and bunting to honest-to-goodness self-propelled floats (though most of them were more along the lines of a flatbed trailer with minimal decorations being pulled by the owner's pickup...) It was when I wondered why some companies would put so much time and money into something that would only be used once or maybe twice a year (because they might drag the same thing out for the Homecoming parade, I've never been in town for that one)...and I realized that putting your name on a fancy float, or getting your company logo printed on a decal that you could stick to the door of your truck, was a way to put a positive spin on your company..."We LOVE our community...and we can afford to indulge in symbolic gestures, too...so bring your business to us!"
Cynical, I know. I also know there are some of them that did it simply for the fun of being in the parade (because, hey, I'll admit it...I've done parades before, too, with no ulterior motive but simply the desire to have a good time). But regardless of the 'why', the parade has become the modern-day version of the passion play, in terms of businesses and groups strutting their stuff for the world to see.
On a totally unrelated note--my dad's family had its annual reunion a week ago. Out of Dad's family, there are only two siblings left (Dad passed away twelve years ago)...and I'm not sure how long those two will be with us. Aside from the obvious realization that, out of a family of seven (total), only two of the kids are still left and that means that the hourglass is running out, there was also the discussion my uncle had with me...
At one point, I'd been walking back and forth to my car, rounding some stuff up, and my uncle walked up to me and asked how I was doing. In and of itself, this is hardly remarkable...he's done that at every family reunion for years. He's the family's elder statesman, the patriarch overseeing all of us, and he takes his responsibilities very seriously in that respect and has always been asking how people are doing, how he can help, or trying to get some of us lined up to solve each others' problems in some way.
What he hasn't done very often in the past is give me a serious heart-to-heart discussion of how the two of us relate to each other, from his side of it. And as he was talking to me, about how proud of me he was, and how he appreciated the patience and compassion he'd always seen from me, and felt like his life had been enriched from my having been a part of it...I couldn't escape the impression that he was saying goodbye. I'm not sure how old he is...Dad was the youngest in the family, and was in his late 60's when he passed away, so my uncle must be in his mid or late 80's now...and while he's aged well, time has been taking its toll on him rather heavily the last few years. It's kind of hard to see...I have memories of our families going out trail-riding on motorcycles, and a lot of other recollections of him being a very spry, active guy with a hint of mischief in his eye, and seeing him now, barely able to get around with a cane and looking very fragile, I can only imagine that, in his mind, he's tired and ready to move on. I also know that he would do so with one major regret--that he's been unable to get my mom and my sister reconciled with each other. There were a lot of bridges burned in our family a few years ago...and while some of those chasms have been closed again, that particular one is steadfast. It's a source of pain to him, because our family has always been so close in the past...and also because the rest of us have managed to forgive and move on...but both my mom and my sister are very stubborn people.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope it wasn't goodbye. His words meant a lot to me--for all that I'm pretty content with who I am as a person, I know that there are some choices I've made in my life that aren't necessarily what my family would have wanted for me, and hearing from him that he was proud of the man I've become settled that sense of agitation for me. I hope that his faith somehow manages to move the mountain it will take to fill the gap between my mom and my sister (and that he's alive and well enough to see it happen and enjoy that moment of rest...I'd really hate for that to be his version of Moses not being allowed to enter the Holy Land after forty years in the desert...)
But if it was goodbye, I'm glad he took the time to say it. He's always been a very wise, perceptive man, in my experience, and I'm massively grateful for his example in my life.
posted by Curtis at 10:45 PM
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