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A Photo Finish
4 July 2016
We are taking the day off to celebrate our nation's declaration of independence from England in 1776. It was no tweet.
Photo Finish. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness on wheels.
It required, according to Spell Catcher's count, over 8,100 characters or 1,334 words in 34 paragraphs and 36 sentences. The second sentence is the most famous:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
At 209 characters, that's no tweet either.
And, according to some scholars, that's the abbreviated version, enjoying an errant period where once there was none. The longer version:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Well, the air in these United States is always puffy with controversy. We contest everything. Even how many hot dogs a person can eat.
We are competitive if not combative.
And that might be because we believe ourselves to be a nation of laws rather than biases. The deck is not stacked against us. It only takes our effort to succeed. There are as many hot dogs available as anyone could possibly eat. So we make the effort.
That's the Disney version. Which is routinely contradicted by the facts. But that's also the goal. It isn't, that is, merely myth. It's the standard to which we (eventually) hold ourselves. In court, if necessary, but to our credit.
We caught an illustration of that noble pursuit yesterday.
We had strolled from Haight-Ashbury to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. As we sat on a park bench to rest, we looked up to see the mass of humanity (as it's sometimes called) passing before our eyes.
We took out the Micro Four Thirds camera we carry on long walks and focused on the parade in front of us. Fate stepped in, as the Disney song goes, and presented the image above to us.
The girl on the Hello Kitty bike with training wheels is wearing a helmet populated with Disney princesses. You can't see it in this thumbnail, but she's puffed her bottom lip out in the effort to move ahead as the white car crept up on her.
It wasn't a race, but it looks like one.
A race that, thanks to the way things played out in front of us, makes it appear she won. Despite far more powerful vehicles around her, the girl in the Hello Kitty bike makes it across the frame first.
In her pursuit of nothing more than Happiness.