The Amazing Wandering MInd

Just to prove that I have not yet lost all of my hearing completely, I was at the computer terminal responding to someone's blog when I heard the familiar boom.. then a pause, then a "boom, boom, boom crackle." I recognize that noise! (I still have a little memory left as well..) It was the sound of fireworks.

My adult onset ADD was screaming, "oooo... shiny things" and I headed out to the front porch to see what I could see. The last year the trees across the street had become tall enough to block a lot of the view, but tonight I could see most of the colorful sparkles and "oooh and aahhhhh" as one should when viewing fireworks. I called to my semi-comatose husband on the couch and asked if he wanted to see them. He joined me for a short while then had enough and went back inside. Shortly after, the trees became a barrier and I made a short walk down the street where I could once again see the sparkling display.

July is fireworks month in Utah. First there is the 4th of July, followed by a state holiday on July 24. When I first moved here, folks would tell me that the 24th was the bigger event. I'd have to say that it was clearly a toss up. Since first relocating to UT, things have changed, though. I don't think they last quite as long as a few years ago, although UT really does know how to put on a fireworks show. However, when I first arrived here in 1999, most of the cities had impressive displays on both of the holidays. Now they tend to alternate weekends with their celebrations. Still there are plenty of fireworks to go around.

At any rate, I thought about a lot of things while watching the fireworks. Who would have thought that watching fireworks would set off a regular chain-reaction of thoughts in my mind. Of course my first thought was, "Ooooo.. pretty." From that my mind wandered over to circuses - you know the Roman circuses -- entertainment for the masses to keep them from focusing on peripheral things and not real life issues. Keep people happy by entertaining them and how I was happily enjoying them regardless of their "value."

Then I inevitably compared it to previous years, and started wondering if shrinking budgets and price increases would force the displays to be ever smaller. I thought about how much we take things for granted, even fireworks after noticing cars going up and down my street seeming to take no notice whatsoever. What if we were to become a third world country and there were no fireworks anymore?

Then for no explanable reason I thought about being old and losing brain cells. I wanted to remember some of these ideas and let's face it, I don't remember things like I used to. It struck me that when you are young you learn so much, so fast, but you have no life experience. Then when you have the actual experience, you start to forget. I think God does that to keep us older folks humble?

And interspersed with all of those thoughts, I thought it would be nice if I had some good photos of fireworks. I read an article on taking fireworks photos. Maybe next year I will set up my tripod and see what I can capture. One can get some pretty cool shots just with a point and shoot and a little luck and timing. I didn't get my camera, though. I would have probably missed them all.

So this is how my mind wanders, and why I have decided, that I probably have adult onset ADD (is there such a thing?)

So tonight, I didn't stop to smell the roses, but I did stop and marvel at fireworks and the ramblings of the human mind. And... don't neglect the important things.

Hope you had a great day!

--Mealnie