It's the Fourth!

Fourth of July, 2010

Summer’s nearly here and I received the Marlboro catalog not a moment too soon. Now I can order a new hat, a real sharp number blazoned with the red and white Marlboro logo.

I’m not a smoker, but the Marlboro Company has somehow struck on just the right combination of red and white in their logo, well, it just affects me. Enervates me. As to the cap, it’s black. I would have preferred a blue one but black will do. The red, the black, the white – it’s a rousing combination. Easy to see why Hitler thought he’d make good use of it. It really makes a statement.

I’m no Nazi, can’t stand them, hate them, in fact. And I’m no sympathizer either. I hate all those white-power jerks; skinheads too even though I’m a bit thinning on top myself (that’s why I need a hat). Some of the local kids call me a fascist, just because I let the Rottweilers out when they cut through my yard on their way home from school. They don’t bother me. They’re just little hippies, the children of grungy punks who were themselves taught by hippies who were in turn schooled by beatniks. Sometimes I think the school board hates America. That’s not right.

Summer’s nearly here bringing along the greatest holiday of them all – Independence Day, the Fourth of July! The red, white and blue, it affects me. The red and white – enervating; the blue, soothing. Mix it all up together you’ve got energy and calm. What better definition of the American Spirit? Optimism, forward-looking, that’s part of the energy part; patience, planning, forbearance, surety of reaching the goal – that’s the calm part. Sometimes America forgets there are two halves. We push forward on the energy of the red and white but forget the necessity of the blue. That’s when the blue turns black. Black’s not calm it’s void, a blankness, the-absence-of. A lot of things can grow in the-absence-of. Expanding energy gets out of hand in the-absence-of. Without some steadiness to mitigate all that energy, to direct it, you run into trouble. Red White and Blue? That’s alright. Red White and Black? Sure got Germany into trouble in the ‘30’s. But that’s all ancient history.

Stick with the Red, White and Blue and you’ll never go wrong. Optimism, energy directed by calmness and the certainty of reaching the goal. That sounds Chinese, like from the I-Ching, a funny little Chinese book, but it’s pure American. Maybe when the Chinese finally succeed in taking over the world we’ll find we’ve got more in common than we thought. But then, their flag’s red and yellow and that might be trouble, although, I understand smoking is very popular in China and Marlboro a very popular brand so maybe they’re not so bad.

I’ll order two hats and keep one in the closet in like-new condition and bring it out when the Chinese come. I hope it will be on the Fourth of July because that’s a great holiday for get-togethers, usually sunny and hot so a hat will be just the thing.

Bud F.X. Landry