The Birthday of the United States is One Thing...

The birthday of the America we hold in our hearts is quite another. That day, for citizens of the Invisible Whitmanian Republic, is July 21, 1855, the date of Ralph Waldo Emerson's letter to Walt Whitman praising the first edition of Leaves of Grass.

You can have your Bar-B-Que. And, please, try not to blow off any of your digits with the illegal firecrackers you light to celebrate your "independence" (after your 7th or 8th beer).

If you ever decide to grow up and get serious, we'll talk about that letter of July 21st and the poem it celebrates. Until then, ask yourself this question: Why must I try so hard to feel something every 4th of July?