July 4th Redux

[This was a blog entry that I had originally published on my MySpace Blog on July 4th of last year. The MySpace blog is now defunct, but I rather liked this post, so I decided to post it again on this blog. After the entry is a YouTube video with clips of this year's show (which was at the same location as the show referenced in this post). Sorry about the quality—the videos were taken with my cell phone. —Kungfupower]

Shooting up into the sky, a ball of flame with a tail of white fire, rapidly climbing like an eagle on the wind. Then, an explosion of fiery sparks—glowing blue, then red, then white—scattering out suddenly, then gently cascading back toward the earth whence it came. This, of course was Kungfupower perfecting his Phoenix Fire-Fist Falls from Heaven Technique—a technique in which so much chi power emanates from Kungfupower's body, that it would surely melt away the eyes of anyone unfortunate enough to gaze upon it.

After a productive Kung Fu work-out session, it was time to go see a fireworks show.

Fireworks were invented in China, as was Kung Fu. Even today, the best fireworks can be found there. In China, there can be found shells that explode and form dragons in the sky. There are others that form luminescent cubes, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. There are even some that create patterns of such glorious complexity, that mathematicians have been driven mad in contemplating their beauty. Kungfupower saw none of these.

Even so, the fireworks show was both beautiful and thrilling, conjuring up memories of a time long ago, when innocence and wonder were the windows through which the world was still seen—a place small and cozy and safe, yet infinitely fascinating. Every summer, the rich kaleidoscope of light that danced across the sky in hues of green, white, purple, red, and blue was a welcome addition to the rich tapestry of experience being eagerly explored and assimilated by a young and curious mind. These brilliant flowers of light had the power to startle with the voice of thunder, then soothe with the chromatic iridescence of a rainbow in a waterfall. Watching this show from a strip mall parking lot in Tustin, CA, I was pleased to discover that the years that have passed have not diminished the power of this yearly ritual to quicken and to calm, and to coax the mirthful laughter of unbounded joy from some secret place long forgotten.