Moment of Hope

I did not get to see any fireworks today, except for a view renegades with some illegal minor explosives they smuggled from Nevada. However, I did see something new this 4th of July. We were at Glorietta Bay in San Diego. I anchored my boat in the bay, along with several hundred other like minded pirates. We jumped in our kayak and made our way to the beach where we hung out, six feet of separation mind you. The crowd started to grow as the day went on. Competing music interests, top 40 blaring to the right, hip hop to the left, sweet home Alabama behind us and a giant yacht with a hUUUge Trump 2020 flag blaring a patriotic song mix in front of us. A group, of what looked like 12 years olds to me, was playing some modified version of beer pong and several young women sitting next to us were really struggling to read their Iphone screens in direct sunlight with sunscreen soaked fingers. It was getting little too crowded, and my wife and I were wishing it was not the 4th of July when this spot would be exclusively ours for the day. I laid back in the sand for a moment, put a towel over my head and tried to relax.

Just as I started to doze off, the meat head next to us started chanting U.S.A…U.S.A…U.S.A… I did a big internal eye roll, just considering the question of how many beers does it take for this moron to start thinking of God and Country when I noticed that the entire crowd was looking upward and all the boat horns started blaring. The navy seals had decided to skydive today, and chose as their landing place the large area just behind the beat we were on. The all had parachutes with some emblem of the U.S. Navy on them. The crowd started cheering as they landed.

Then for the finale, the last paratrooper came down with a giant U.S. Flag streaming behind him. There, under the bright sun, a beach full of party goers all stood in awe as they watched this navy seal drift down above our heads with the ultimate symbol of patriotism. As he drifted closer to the ground, I got a little choked up, thinking that despite all the craziness going on there still was some hope. Hope for this group of souls, hope for us, and in that one moment of solidarity we all cheered for this Navy Seal, cheered for ourselves, and cheered for our country.

Then of course everyone went immediately back to drinking, yelling, listening to raunchy music and generally acting like idiots. However, for a moment there, just a moment, I felt hope for the first time in months.

Guy Reams