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The lost concept of the holiday

Holidays are important to me, so much so that I invented my own awhile ago. But today I had a strange experience that makes me think in the U.S. we’ve lost the idea completely.

Today is July 4th, Independence day and we’re supposed to be doing fun things to celebrate the birth of the United States (and hopefully remembering times when the world thought better of us).

But surprise, surprise. My local supermarket is open all day. As is the neighboring video rental store, Thai resteraunt and various other stores. And the biggest surprise was how good business was: it was hard to find parking.

What’s going on? Are holidays only holidays for some now?

Hypocracy disclaimer: my wife is sick today and on a lark I called the video place. Since they were open I drove over and picked up some food and a movie for her. But I had the strangest feeling the whole time that things would be better off if all those stores were closed.