[rev_slider fireworks]
Day 26
We were sitting in the Radical Church building with the other gringos for the early English service. The ceiling fans above us did their best to keep us cool so we could concentrate on our Tico minister’s message. It went something like this.
Your 4th of July Independence story is better than ours. You had tea party protests, Paul Revere’s ride, banding together, fighting against a much stronger nation for independence. It involved creativity, grit, sacrifice.
Our independence was being dumped. Spain broke up with us. They were having their own issues at home and decided they didn’t have the energy to deal with colonies. Try telling that part of history to the kids in school and while instilling pride in our beginnings.
The decision to let us go was finalized in Guatemala and the message took a long time to reach us by horse. There were only about ten thousand people in Costa Rica at that time, we were very few. When the messenger arrived, I can only imagine the conversation went something like this.
“Hey, you guys are free. It happened a while ago, ok?”
“What? But why? What’d we do?”
“They just didn’t want you anymore.”
“Well what are we supposed to do now, join Mexico?”
“Well let’s think about that. It would be Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and you guys way down here in Mexicito?”
“Well this is a bit of a mess.”
In the end it matters not who dumped who, you’re still going your separate ways. But his point was that Americans still celebrate their independence with great enthusiasm because it was difficult to get. Even now people gather together, have big meals, put on huge light displays of celebration in the sky. When you sacrifice to get something,
you remember, you celebrate.
We did have a little pork tenderloin celebration later that evening. We let the newly greencarded person make the July 4th dinner. Right when we finished, as if on cue, fireworks right off our balcony began. The new resort next door did a huge fireworks display. It was impressive.
Perhaps it made me the happiest. On rare occasions, when I was growing up, we made the herculean effort to get downtown to see the fireworks under the St. Louis Arch. Like the minister said, things that take a lot of effort are often the most appreciated. While the festive lights were flashing and sparkling in the sky I thought about our efforts to get our whole family to this place, at this time, and appreciated the moment just a little bit more.