in the footsteps of The Father of Our Country

I know I get too fired up over this Christmas lights thing,  It begins to take me over like my job used to do when I particularly hated it.  I'm walking along minding my own business, not bothering anybody and maybe I am enjoying the shine of the sun and the song of the lark and then I start thinking about the affair.  Maybe I should have said this instead of that, how unfair and illogical the other side is being, how just my cause is, and then I am no longer leaning back taking long breaths of the sweet early summer air, I am walking hunched over, my fists balled, muttering so that little kids and old ladies give me a wide berth.

And then I say to myself STOP, this is stupid, it is whatever it is, even if I lose my cause the world will go on, there's nothing I can do about it at the moment, it is a lovely day, the sun is in its glory and that sweet little lark is singing its little heart out.  Well of course, I am right, aren't I almost always?

So I unball my fists, put my thumbs into my pockets cowpoke style, my mad rush becomes a genial amble, and my thoughts gently drift from this to that.  But inevitably, after a block or two some remembrance of the affair sidles out onto center stage, and within a minute my fists are balled and my mouth is muttering,

I hate Christmas music.  That gift-giving thing is very annoying.  Generally I tolerate hypocrisy because it's just another side of politeness, but it can get awfully thick around Yule time.  But I love the lights.  I have never had a Christmas tree, actually I have never had lights until I moved into Marina City, but now that I have them I love them.  It is my way of celebrating Christmas, what is more American than that?

And isn't it the right of every American to celebrate Christmas however they choose?  See here it is where my cause goes a little off the rails.  It's not just me, it is everybody, well that lives in Marina City, but maybe if I win this great victory, other condo boards will note and will not oppress their unit owners in a similar manner.  And really it is not just a fight for Christmas lights, but it is about basic rights.  It is the principle of the matter.  Did not George Washington raise the spirits of his hardy band of rebels by stringing gaily colored lights across bleak Valley Forge?  Well he would have if they had been invented.