fifth of july...red, white, and blue withdrawal. call me non-patriotic, but that color combo appeals to me far less than it did before. please don't misunderstand, i feel blessed in many ways to live in america, i am thankful for the freedom and abundance we have here. but in the last few years, the deepest gravitation of my heart is toward things global, and not just our own back yard. i think pride in your team, family, or cause is to be embraced and commended, but not not not at the expense of seeing the bigger picture, the greater principle. it brings me down when i think of my/our american overconsumption compared to the hunger elsewhere in the world. it brings me down when i think of my/our avoidance and/or apathy toward gross oppression and suffering elsewhere in the world as i sit in the comfortable quality of life i call poverty and the rest of the world would call paradise. it brings me down when i sense this attitude of supremacy and superiority when we really have so much to learn from the ways of the rest of our so-called poorer earth-citizens. it brings me down, but ultimately lifts me way up, to gradually snap out of certain programmed responses that have kept me in false, frozen paradigms for way way way too long. i will be very candid and state that overblown campy pseudo-patriotism is in that category for me. my gratitude is sky-high for the extraordinary life sacrifices made by our soldiers past and present. but i have come to believe that a certain line gets crossed, and what should have stayed as healthy, enriching, perspective-filled pride erupts into this volcano of propagandous mush. go ahead and give me a mid-year bah-humbug if you wish, but these are my authentic fifth of july reflections, and the kaleidoscopic colors of the world are far more beautiful to me than red, white, and blue. to end this on a lighter note, get a vision from one of my songs from "joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat" that i'm currently performing. picture a world of "red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and gray and purple and white and pink and orange and blue." that's what i call moving from a fourth to a fifth of july mentality. it's a mysterious adjustment process, but i like it, and i'll still gladly suck on a sweet red, white and blue frozen bomb pop once a year in honor of the holiday.