Today, of course, is Fireworks Day for USAnians. It’s an important summer day we celebrate with picnics, sunburn, maybe some swimming, maybe some baseball and — always — a lot of fireworks. I always wonder how many reflect on how those fireworks echo a war we fought to become who we are today.

Three years ago, on this day in 2011, I began Logos con carne. It wasn’t my first blog — I’d had a go at a baseball blog begun the month before. But I’d found it harder to write about baseball, especially just about baseball, so “meaty words” was born. This will be my 361st post here. The experiment and experience of blogging continues today.

Sixteen years ago, on this day in 1998, I got married. On a riverboat. With balloons and cake. And fireworks that seemed appropriate at the time. But the anticipated life-long path came to a dead-end by 2003, and that, as they say, was that. My experiment with marriage had an unexpected result, and the echoes of that result linger yet today.

Twenty-Two years ago, on this day in 1992, my uncle — my dad’s only brother — died. He was a really cool uncle, and we had a lot of fun in years past discussing quantum physics and theology. He was a theology professor at a local college, and he was very interested in the scientific world. He found out the answer to the great experiment we call life: what (if anything) comes next? He might have enjoyed this blog; I miss him still today.

Two-hundred-and-thirty-eight years ago, on this day in 1776, some famous guys ratified an important contract — the United States Declaration of Independence. Then they went to a picnic and maybe some swimming. That was the beginning of an experiment that, for better or worse, is still with us today.

And so it goes.

And so it goes.

And so it goes.