Funny things, fireworks. Exciting at first, but they can get pretty boring if they go on too long. Like pancakes.*
We saw two fireworks displays this week--the first a small show over a lake out in the woods over the weekend, the second a massive display between Boston and Cambridge on the holiday itself.
I really didn't expect to go see the Boston fireworks. If there's one thing I shy away from, it's large groups of shouting people congregating in the dark. I really don't like crowds, especially loud ones. Add to that the headaches of finding a parking space or room on the train and the rush to claim a place to sit on the lawn, plus the steady drizzle and cold temps of last night, and I see no reason to venture beyond my cozy apartment door. I know, what a party pooper.
But when the time came for the show to start last night, we just couldn't resist. We drove out of town to a hill overlooking the city in time to catch the second half of the show. It was bigger and gaudier than any fireworks display I've ever seen, including one I saw on Bastille Day in Paris a couple of years ago. By the time they got to the finale, there was so much smoke in the air that we couldn't even see the fireworks themselves, just flashes of light shooting through the clouds.
The weekend display was much more humble, but I really liked the feeling of being out on a lake, surrounded by other boats full of people. For all of my talk about not liking crowds, one thing I really do like is being in a silent crowd, especially when it's dark. Not like in a movie theater, when there's something else taking the place of the crowd-noise, but when everything is quiet and still, when people are gathered and waiting. It was like that while we were waiting for the fireworks to start on Saturday night--a little hushed conversation between neighbors, but mostly a stillness, a sense of calm, collective anticipation.
That's such a beautiful and eerie experience to me. It's one of the reasons I love to go to Easter Vigil Mass with my family every spring. On the night before Easter, everyone gathers in the darkened church holding unlit candles. The windows are open, and the contrast between the warmth inside and the cool breeze from outside makes the air feel deliciously alive. Everyone is standing, silently, watching and waiting, for several long minutes. Then the priest comes in from the back, carrying a lit candle, and we pass the flame until the whole place is full of little burning candles, and we sing. Then they do the reading from Genesis and turn the lights back on, which makes thematic sense, but I wish we could do the whole thing in the semi-dark. So different from the everyday.
So anyway, the waiting for those lake fireworks to start was, in my opinion, the highlight of the Independence Day festivities.
There was lowlight, too, involving a nest of wasps, but I'll save that story for another day.
*I know, I totally stole that from Mitch Hedberg.
