As the recent fourth of July holiday weekend approached I found myself less and less excited. By July third I just did not care. I told my husband that I felt really unpatriotic and didn’t have an ounce of desire in me to celebrate this year. At first I thought I was being unpatriotic and felt a stab of guilt about that. Then I realized that wasn’t where my qualms lie at all. My issue was that I am annoyed with what the holiday has became. It has turned into simply “the 4th”, a weekend in which the main focus has little to do with what the holiday originated as. I did a quick search on Pinterest for “Happy fourth of July” and my screen was filled with images like

and

and my personal favorite (please read with sarcastic tone)

I mean really? What is that about? Dripping flag lips with some tongue? Happy Birthday America!

That’s not even all. Next, I did a search for “Happy Independence Day” and guess what………

Nothing.

Nadda.

Zip.

Zilch.

No images came up.

This is what my problem was, I wasn’t turning into a scrooge that had lost all patriotism, I was simply annoyed at our societies ability to take true meaning out of something and make into an excuse to fire up the grill. It seems so disrespectful.

Please don’t get me wrong, I love getting together with friends and family and having a good time, and this year is the first year in a long time that I didn’t do so.

And this isn’t the only holiday in which this happens. Take Thanksgiving for example, I absolutely loath it when people dumb it down to “Happy Turkey day!” Really. Really? I mean, really! Come on people! What about the pilgrims! People died to come to this country! And you’re all like “hey let’s eat turkey because that’s what you eat at the end of November!” How about let’s say “Happy THANKSGIVING!” and hear the words as they come out of our mouths, and then we can BE THANKFUL!

But then you have the ones who I shake my head at in silence for lack of appropriate words. The ‘Merry X-Mas’ crowd. I understand that many people subscribe to many different things in this world and I strive to not push my beliefs onto anyone. The ‘X-Mas’ crowd makes me more sad that upset. I need Christ in my life. I must have him.

As I write this I am reminded of the quote from Romeo and Juliet “What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” I’ll tell you what’s in a name.

RESPECT

I know that people will do what they will and my annoyance will not change them in the slightest. Humans will always display some amount of disrespect, and let me be the first to say that I have certainly done so in my life. I am trying to be more aware of it though, maybe it’s old age, maybe it’s wisdom. I think I’m just too sensitive most of the time. So, even though it’s a little late let me wish you a very