California’s Green Grape Vineyards versus California’s Burnt Black Mountains. On One Side, the Wine Country. On the Other Side, the Burnt Mountains. On One Side, Life. On the Other Side, Death . Smelling Life. Smelling Death. Written for the Current Future Survival of the Human Species. Versus. The Current and Future Self-Destruction of the Human Species. By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr! July 24th, 2018.

 California’s Green Grape Vineyards versus California’s Burnt Black Mountains.

 On One Side, the Wine Country.  On the Other Side, the Burnt Mountains.

 On One Side, Life.  On the Other Side, Death
.
 Smelling Life.  Smelling Death.

No Nuclear War!  OR.  Nuclear War!  Which is it going to be?

 Written for the Current Future Survival of the Human Species.

 Versus.

 The Current and Future Self-Destruction of the Human Species.

 By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

 July 24th, 2018.

In my younger days, when I was living in Upstate New York, someplace around the Finger Lakes, (You do not get to know where and it does not matter anyway.)  I used to bicycle on very good touring bicycles around the Finger Lakes around lakes and in the backcountry.  Oh my, what beautiful scenery too.  One of the main attractions was those grape vineyards on wide and open pots of land with poles sticking up from the ground with very long wires from one pole to the other poles, from one end of the field to the other end of the fields of grape vineyards.  The grape plant or wine plants as how I like to think of them would wrap themselves around the poles and those wires until their grapes were in perfect condition to make wine; wine from New York.

On this Sunday, but it could have been any Sunday, I took a ride on another type of bike, the kind with an engine on it.  I needed a real mental break from reading my last reading book titled, ‘The Cosmic Universe.’  When you are riding on any type of bike, your brain gets a little vacation from your normal life because you have to mentally focus and concentrate on the road and driving on the road so you are not focused on reading the subject of little tiny sub-atomic particles that you can not see with your eyes.  If only my human parents knew what I knew when I was just a little boy, they would have put me into a school for geniuses.  Oh well!

Anyway, on Sunday I had placed myself in the middle of California’s grape and wine country.  And wow, there I was again among the fields of grape vineyards and buildings where wine could be sampled for a tasting.  I do not drink and drive, so why stop for the wine tasting.

The weather was perfect at that moment.  The sky was its cool light blue color.  The buildings were mixed with their own grays or browns with their own personalized signs on the front of each different wine tasting building located on their own fields.  On the right and on the left that is all I saw, green grape plants, brown trees of various shapes and sizes, and different colored buildings too.  That is what I saw with my eyes.

What I saw with my mind was life.  There were living plants, people, and even living engines hidden away in cars, trucks, and on motorcycles.  There was the chemical exchange of chemistry that takes place between humans and the air, and the plants and the air, and the grapes and their vines.  And there was life all around that you could see and life you could not see.

And then, I was in for a rather very pleasant surprise.  My nose smelled it first, and then my brain registered what my noise had already registered a few seconds ago.  It was the scent of wine flowing out of so many buildings at once that it was now lingering in the air as I drove through the air on my ... well, it did not matter what you would have been driving ... you would have smelled the scent of wine in whatever type of auto machine, or non-auto machine you would have been driving at that very moment in space and time on planet earth.  Wow.  I sniffed the air to see if I could get a wine buzz from the air, but no such luck.

I wonder how the birds and other earthly creatures felt about the strong scent of wine in the air.

I stopped for a break and for some gas, but mainly for a break at a gas station to take a pee, get my head free from the helmet, and to get some information too, if possible.  The attendant told me that I could have continued riding straight down the road, which was actually getting kind of boring once I had driven through the air was drunken by it’s the scent of wind.  Or I could take a detour on the Silverado Trail.  I decided to take the Silverado Trail.  (The Silverado Trail is a scenic route that travels 29 miles along the Eastern edge of the Napa Valley, parallel to and several miles to the east of California State Route 29.)  The road I was on was on the west side.  The Silverado Trail is on the east side.

Ok then.  So the Silverado Trail is a back road I soon discovered, not like the main road I had been on before being diverted by a new possible adventure.  There was no moving traffic on the road except for me.  I wondered why and I soon learned why the road had very little if any cars, trucks, or even motorcycles on it.  I did not know!  I simply did not know what I was going to see for miles upon miles upon miles.  I just did not know.  I sort of wish that the gas attendant had told me what I was going to see and smell, but then I would not have driven down that long road.  I did not know so I was not expecting to see and smell death.

It started off with a little taste of death, and the sights and smells of death.  Ok, I had been there before, around death, in one form or another of death, as in this case, the death of trees and plants and earthly creatures in the backcountry when I had traveled into unknown areas and roads just for the fun and enjoyment of riding on new roads.  And in other ways too.  It had shocked my brain for a split moment but then I realized that there would probably be more death in my sight and my mind.  I did not know.  I simply did not know how long the view of death on earth would continue for me and my ride on the Silverado Trail.  But now I was mentally prepared for the view of death.  I was ready for it, but it was not a very pleasant sight at all.

This was a different kind of death.  It was not the death of a biological human body.  No sir!  It was the death of life on earth, on this stretch of highway on the Silverado Trail in the grape and wine country of Napa, CA.  As I rode my motorcycle down the road the scene did not get better.  The scene only became worse and worse and worse.  After a short time, I thought that I was actually smelling death and I did not know if my mind was playing tricks on itself because my eyes actually saw the tall mountains that had been burnt out dry of life because of wild forest fires.

I wonder how the birds and other earthly creatures felt about the strong scent of a fire in the air.

At the ground level, I looked to the left of me and then I looked to the right of me.  I saw black dark dead trees and bushes and dirt on the ground.  I looked high above me to the left and to the right of me.  All I saw was, especially very high above me, was complete and utter lack of life.  All I saw was mountain tops with that dark black death of dead trees and other voids of life.

There were no visible signs of living life.  Maybe small rodents like rats or mice or squirrels were living there, but I doubt it because even the rats and mice and squirrels need a certain amount of stuff to live on in order to stay alive as biological creatures.  Maybe there were ants living under the ground.  I do not know.  I simply do not know if any type of earthly life could survive up there on the tops of the darken black death mountains or even lower in the lower parts of the darken black death mountains.

How long would it be before the forest and mountain tops would have life again?  How long would it take for planet earth to have life again after a nuclear war?

I sniffed the air like I did when I was traveling through the very short area of wine air.  Nope!   Nothing!  I could not smell anything, except in my mind I was smelling death, the burning of live and dead wood that was being engulfed by the flames of fire, of uncontrollable fire.  No, I think I actually did smell those burnt dead trees, just like I smelled burning wood at a fireplace.

I bet you those wildlife firefighters smelled those fiery flames of death when they fight forest fires.  I bet you that they will never forget that smell of that kind of death.  That means the smell of death lingers within your mind just like the smell of wine lingers in your mind, the one bad odor of rotten stench, the other a good aroma, like a good perfume, or a good wine.

I have to be honest with my readers.  After a while, my mind was disgusted with the whole scene!

I saw an ending of a sunset taking place over on other mountains far away from me and the mountains of death.  The timing was almost perfect.  The sun is a very huge big ball of nuclear energy, sending burning hot radiation through cosmic space down to planet earth.  It takes only eight minutes for those rays from the sun to reach planet earth, you know.  I felt that burning hot radiation the next day as I rode through the air that was above 100 degrees.  Oh yes, I felt the heat of the flames of the sun.  I did not know the temperatures (the degree or intensity of heat present in a substance or object. ...) would be above 100 degrees or I would not have ridden that day.

But I learned something once again.  Well, I relearned it.  The human body does not like burning hot air.  The brain does not like burning hot air.  The skin does not like burning hot air.  The heart does not like burning hot air.  Although the human body does like a hot bath, it does not like really burning hot air.  My guess is that even the lungs do not like burning hot air either.  My bet is that all of that wildlife on those mountains did not like burning hot air either.

The trees and plants did not like the burning hot air of burning fire.  The ants did not like the burning hot air of burning fire.  The birds did not like the burning hot air of burning fire.  The deer did not like the burning hot air of burning fire.  The small animals did not like the burning hot air of burning fire.

I did not like the burning hot air when I was riding on my motorcycle.  My guess is that every human being on planet earth does not like the burning hot air of an uncontrollable burning fire.  People are suffering all around planet earth today with record heat temperatures and a big majority of people do not have protection or air conditioning to relieve them from the burning hot energy of the nuclear ball of the sun.

Does any human being see where I am going with this story/essay?  Nuclear war will not be fun!

Nuclear war will mean death to most if not all of the human species.  It is that simple!

Before I arrived at the Napa grape and wine country, I rode in winds for one hour.  They were not small gales of winds you might experience on a lake if you were sailing a sailboat.  No sir.  These winds were powerful winds that were ripping back and forth left and right nonstop, continuously bombarding me and an 800-pound motorcycle for one hour.  Great practice for me and my riding skills, but ... and it is not a good but ... but if these were the winds were from a nuclear bomb that caused winds with uncontrollable hot nuclear energy from one nuclear bomb or in all probability many nuclear bombs, well that could be the end of life on planet earth.  A lot of life.  It would mean death to all creatures small or large, smart or stupid, human and non-human alike.

That is what a nuclear bomb is for.  A nuclear bomb is for death.  Many nuclear bombs are for even more death.  Darken, black, death.  A state of nothingness.  A void of life.  Meaningless!

Not to mention the fact that it would be a shame to see thousands of years of grape and wine making all gone forever!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdrL3QxjyVw

“A House Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand.” (Jesus) A Nation Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand. A Human Species Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand. By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr! July 21st, 2018.

 “A House Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand.”  (Jesus)

 A Nation Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand.  (George)

 A Human Species Divided Against Itself Can Not Stand.  (George)


 By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

 July 21st, 2018.


 For the Current and Future Survival of the Human Species

Versus

The Current and Self-Destruction of the Human Species.



Quotes. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided.  Lincoln's House Divided Speech - Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_House_Divided_Speech.

The House Divided Speech was an address given by Abraham Lincoln, later President of the United States, on June 16, 1858 at what was then the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, after he had accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination as that state's US senator.

When I was a little boy, my dad drove us to visit my grandmother on his side of the family.  It was an hour long drive and I will always remember the long curvy or straight road that pointed downward and then up again until he drove the car was on a flat straight road.  Those images were imprinted into my mind which is why maybe I used like mountain bike riding up and then down long and dangerous hills and mountains and maybe that is why I really love driving my car and especially riding my motorcycle down curvy highways on today’s highways, or in the backcountry of mountain peaks.  For those of you who do not ride motorcycles, you will never understand the fun of riding a motorcycle or how dangerous it really is.

Mentioning curvy line on roads, some of us kids had to sleep on the floor because there were not enough beds to go around for so many kids and grownups.  That was ok by me because there were these wooden curvy picture frames with male relatives who I never had a change to meet although I probably would not have meet them anyway because they were alive long ago.  I would ask my aunt, “Who are those people, (male faces) in the picture frames?”  She would always answer, “Those are so and so who died in the war.”  I never asked which war it was because war was war to me.

My point here is that they were dead because they had died because they were in a war.  Any war would do folks!  Any war will do to prove my points in this online essay.  Any war will do!  How many faces were killed in all of America’s wars and World Wars, etc.?  How many!

I was watching Fox News (I miss that Bill O'Reilly | No Spin.) and CNN, etc this week while taking breaks from my reading one of many books, ‘The Cosmic Machine: The Science That Runs Our Universe and the Story Behind It.’ by Scott Bembenek, a short read on the history of quantum stuff.  Everyone should read it.  I am just saying, you know!

https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Machine-Science-Universe-Behind-ebook/dp/B074CPJ51S

What I saw this week was a huge division in the politics of the United States of America, and that division was happening in a big way by people in government and in America’s media news outlets on American television.  Shame on you emotional employees who work in government that want to create division in America.  Shame on you people in media who want to create division in America, even if you have to make fake news to make news and that fake news money.  Shame all of you who hate a president of the United States of America.  Shame on you!

As a side note, I do not know Trump personally and he would have to pay me a lot of money to work for him.  I am writing from a different mental perspective than the normal humans who walk on planet earth.  I am writing from a higher mental perspective than many other human beings who are talking trash about Trump and what he is doing in and for America.

‘A house divided against itself.’ *  How many different ways could that biblical phrase be taken?  It could be applied to any household in the world.  It could be applied to any religious organization or government or business in the world.  Actually, it could be applied to the whole global species because if the whole global species is divided against itself, it will not stand as a collective human species.  I am just saying it.  You know!

A nation divided against itself can not stand.  How many people in America are sick and tired of America’s politicians fighting with each other when in fact they care little for the American people?  How many people in America are sick and tired of the US government and the media twisting words and meanings to make more money by starting a media war against the president of the United States of America?  How many people are sick and tired of war altogether?

A human species divided against itself.  My bet is that there are billions of helpless and innocent human beings who are currently living on planet earth who are wishing and praying that the world leaders could stop fighting among themselves at least sometime in the near future so they do not begin another world war.  Any sensible would think to themselves that it is good for world leaders to talk among themselves.  You know, to work out their problems, their global problems so war does not happen.

There is an old saying that if you take one sentence out of a Shakespeare play, say of Hamlet, you will never know the whole story of the play Hamlet.  That is exactly what some government people and some of the media was doing this week with Trump’s one sentence with his meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and even with North Korea’s Kim.  The President is not God.  He is bound to make mistakes.  He is not a homegrown politician, which is good.  But he is sincerely  trying to make a real effort in doing his job as the president of the United States of America.  That I believe!

It is like, “Oh, my God!  Oh my God President Trump is actually talking to America’s longtime enemies who want to destroy America and take over the whole world.  Oh, my God, a United States President is actually talking to other global leaders who may or may not be America’s enemies.  Oh, my God!  President Trump is trying to communicate with world leaders, meaning he is trying to use words instead of weapons of war to solve all of the issues and problems he must try to solve for the good of America, the American people, and even for the good of the world.  Oh, my God, Trump must be a traitor to America who must be impeached and then hung by a rope from a tree to die on national and international television.  What kind of mind makes such a statement on international television?  Or even imply it!

REALLY?

The human species is already divided against itself in some many different ways.  But, and it is a very big but, the human species is also becoming less and less divided against itself in so many different ways too.  A few points here.  Almost every nation on earth possess weapons of war and not only that fact is true, but those weapons of war are becoming bigger and better all the time.  What a good and common thing to happen?

Ok, every nation is ready and prepared to go to war with another nation.  Hum!  Well, that seems a pretty easy act to do, you know, human beings killing each other for whatever reason.  How many freaking wars is it going to take for the human species to destroy itself?  The human species has been fighting with itself during the course of history, but in recent human history, a Civil War in America. World War I and II.  A Korean War.  A Vietnam War. And for the future a really big war with nuclear weapons.  Well, that should be fun to watch, if you could see the arriving radiation blowing through the air before it evaporates and disintegrates every human biological body into a state of nothingness.

Maybe the real problem is that the new generations of Americans have never experienced war on any level because they are to busy being so self-absorbed with taking pictures of themselves with their smart phones of their faces, ass, tits, and sexual organs that they are not mentally competent to grasp the bigger issues and problems that are facing the human species.  Of course, there is more to that frame of mind, like being obsessed with sports, drugs, money, etc.  That is why there are world leaders to handle the bigger problems that the young boys and girls do not see, nor understand.

Or maybe the bigger problem is the old farts in Washington who are so obsessed with being part of a political party that they too, are forgetting what a real war is like, so they fight with the current president of the United States of America.

I was talking to a female employee of Comcast who was located in the Philippines.  We were both speaking the English language and because I am usually considered to be the good-looking talker, even on the phone, by the female human species, started talking.  So we started talking about UFOs, and Egypt’s huge Pyramids.  You see my dear readers, I was thousands of miles away from this female who lives in a different nation or country and we were both speaking the English language about UFOs, and Egypt’s huge Pyramids.  And all the while I was thinking to myself, and I am very serious here, “What a miracle of modern science is taking place here at this moment.”  We were thousands of miles away and talking in the same language about stuff.

And that my dear readers is what every American should be thinking about President Trump who is talking and communicating with other world leaders to solve America’s issues and problems and even world issues and problems.  The president of the United States of America is talking to other world leaders so hopefully, there will not be another world war.

The human species is living in a new world.  It is living in a world of mass communication with communicational tools like computers and smart phones.  It is not the old world of letters being sent by horse, or by ship, or by stamp.  No, no, no!  President Trump is doing exactly what he is supposed to do, what he should be doing at this moment in human history.  He is communicating by way of talking to other world leaders.  It is not a good idea for Trump to be like other America  Presidents who did almost nothing to solve America’s and the world’s issues and problems by hiding in the White House in Washington DC with the United States Secret Service protecting a little scared mouse who is to afraid of what may happen if he leaves the White House to talk to other world leaders to hopefully stop any world war that could happen especially with nuclear weapons.

So America, what will it be?  An America that is divided against itself or an America that will stand tall for world peace and support an America President even if you do not like him?

Not everyone is going to agree with everything that President Trump does and that is ok.  But everyone should agree that he is currently the President of the United States of America.  And it is about time that everyone should remember that if shit hits the fan like it did during Pearl Harbor and on September 11, 2001, or on 911, America’s citizens will have to stand tall and united again.  Then every American will support the President of the United States of America anyway.  But by then, it may be too late!

* Matthew 12:22-28, Mark 3:25.

AMERICA, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! The Fourth of July and Fireworks. A Few Personal Fireworks Memories of My Own. Plus, Fireworks in America versus China. Whatever You Do In Life, Make a Few Memories with Fireworks. By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr! July 4th, 2018.

AMERICA, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

 The Fourth of July and Fireworks.

 A Few Personal Fireworks Memories of My Own.

 Plus, Fireworks in America versus China.

 Whatever You Do In Life, Make a Few Memories with Fireworks.


 By: Mr. George D. Patnoe., Jr!

 July 4th, 2018.


 AMERICA, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

“Independence Day, also referred to as the Fourth of July or July Fourth, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as a new nation, the United States of America, and were no longer part of the British Empire.[1] The Congress actually voted to declare independence two days earlier, on July 2.[1]

Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, and political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the National Day of the United States.”  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Maybe every America citizen who thinks about the Fourth of July in America thinks about fireworks.  American citizens either think about going to the fireworks in their own towns and cities, and even if they do not go to the fireworks in their towns and cities, there are always fireworks on the side streets somewhere, legal or illegal.  Of course, there are always those firework booths in store and mall parking lots that sell fireworks to anyone who would like to purchase fireworks so they can have some fun and enjoy the Fourth of July celebration in their backyard or on their streets, legal or not legal.  Of course, the truth is that America is really uptight about having its citizens displaying fireworks on the Fourth of July, or Independence Day.  But in reality, America’s so-called freedoms are becoming less and less, not more and more.

Some people get old enough so that they have very clear and precision memories of when they watched fireworks.  I know I have memories of very long ago, and not so long ago.  I am writing about three different firworks memories that have happened to me during my lifetime.  The first two firework experiences that happened to me were in America.  The third firework experience I will write about happened to me was in China.  Of course I have more than three memories of fireworks, but I only need three in this story.

The three memories I want to write about happened during three different stages of my life.  The first being when I was very young with my parents and brothers and sisters  in Bloomfield, Connecticut.  The second was in Manhattan, New York, USA., while standing on the edge of the ocean at Battery Park, Manhattan with my sister Judy.  And third was when I was in visiting JiangXi China around the year 20108 during the Chinese New Year.  Yes, the Chinese still use fireworks to celebrate their holidays too.  And that is something you never forget, even if you want to forget them.


Fireworks in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

So there we were, as a family, me and my parents and brothers and sisters sitting on a High School curvy grassy field and the weather was so nice too.  A clear night and the fireworks were not like they are today, but they were good enough for kids and grownups alike.  We drove there in a station wagon, which was a long car that was shorter, but longer than today’s SUVs,.  (Sport utility vehicle.)  But it served the same functions because it had the front and back seats and it also had the back area to store stuff in or it could be used to sit one or two more people.  The trip to the High School field to watch the yearly Fourth of July fireworks was a yearly thing for a while until something happened one year that I will never forget.

What started off as a clear night with the normal fireworks blasting into the sky with the bright stars behind the fireworks ended up with quickly the approaching massive, dark and think clouds in the night darkness just after the fireworks had finished.  The place was packed like sardines and it was crowded like it is normally on any firework night celebration.  I remembered it like it happened yesterday because it is stuck inside my mind.  I had looked up at the sky and then I looked at my dad who was staring down at me for a second.  He looked at my mother and he said to her, “Honey, I am going to get the car.”

So my dad runs off, leaving the rest of us behind and I am thinking to myself, ‘Why is he going to get the car without us?’  So we started to walk and I was thinking to myself, ‘I guess he is going to bring the car closer to us on the street.  So we are going to walk to the street and meet him there.’  I looked up at the dark clouds and the rain was beginning to drop down on the crowd of people who were all knowing that they were going to get soaking wet in a matter of minutes.  I remember turning my head to see the station wagon heading downward towards us, dividing the crowd of people in half like Mose separating the Red Sea in the Bible story.

So, the crowd was splitting up in two sides like the water in the red sea for Moses in the Bible Story.  It was as funny as heck and the looks on people’s face’s were a mixed set of facial expressions.  But we all got into the station wagon and my dad drove us off the wet green grass and off to home we went, after we drove off the now wet grassy High School field.  What is the point of this story you may ask yourself.  The point of this story is that it was at that moment that I knew that my dad would do anything to protect his family, his wife and kids from danger, even if that danger was only the wet rain after the Fourth of July fireworks.

Another point of this remembrance is that even back in my old days, fireworks were not really allowed on the streets, only in the High School field.  More on that point later.


Fireworks in Battery Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York. USA.

Me and my nine year younger sister Judy were living in Long Island, New York.  She was a stock broker and/or assistant to a bigger stock broker depending on the moment in her career.  Now she is a lawyer, but we will not hold that against her.  Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to go watch the fireworks in Manhattan and I said yes.  Now what the reader must understand that in New York City, when crowds get together for any holiday, for the Thanksgiving Parade, for the New Years dropping of the New Year’s Ball, and the Fourth of July for fireworks, there are a lot of people who are traveling to New City and returning home from New City.  It is very busy!

But Manhattan is only so big and it is surrounded by water too.  So the fireworks in Manhattan are basically taking place on huge water barges (‘A long flat-bottomed boat for carrying freight, typically on canals and rivers, either by its own power or towed by another boat.’)  The fireworks are lit off the water barges and rocketed high into the sky.  And with so many water barges up and down the water ways, the whole night sky is lit up with fireworks, so much so that you really can not see the stars if you are looking at the fireworks from below, unlike the fireworks in smaller towns and cities like Bloomfield Conn, or even in San Francisco, California.  Plus, they lasted a long time.  Just on and on and on with the fireworks, until the grand finale or climax.

So there we were standing, so close to the water’s edge, hanging onto the steel or metal guardrails that stopped people from falling into the water as we watched Manhattan’s fireworks.  It was quite a show indeed.  So many wide angle bursts of fireworks and mixing up with each other so there was no way you were ever going to forget them, even if you tried.  And when it was all over, everyone scattered away from Battery Park just like they scattered away from the High School field in Bloomfield, Connecticut.  And again, America’s citizens were not usually allowed to set off fireworks on the streets or backyards.  Hum!

As a side remark, on more than one occasion my sister Judy also invited me to the World Trade Center’s Windows on the World restaurant to eat and have wine.  At the time, it was very nice to sit down on top of the world, looking down onto the city of Manhattan while we were eating food and drinking wine.  I did not really think to much of the food and wine, but sitting there was really cool.  It was a special place, almost a semi-mystical place to relax and forget about the whole world for a hour or two while you could down at the city of Manhattan.  In truth, those were special moments for lots of reasons, but mainly I was one of the lucky people in the world who got to wine and dine on top of the World Trade Center Tower before it was destroyed on 911.

I now wish that I could have watched Manhattan’s fireworks from the World Trade Center’s Windows on the World restaurant.  But maybe that would have meant looking down at the fireworks instead of looking up at the fireworks while standing on the street.  Looking up at the fireworks is probably more normal because fireworks are like the stars, always up there, away from earthly things.


Fireworks in Jiangxi China.

For some seemingly silly reason, although I did not realize and know that I was going to experience the fireworks during a Chinese New Year’s celebration.  I should have consciously realized that I was going to experience a Chinese New Year’s celebration because I had been around them in America, although not with the fireworks.

It was a funny thing the last time I visited China, during the year 2011.  The last time I had arrived in the airport in Guangzhou City in China, ‘a little ways away from Hong Kong,’ the airport reminded me of an overlarge shack, simple building with simple past port soldiers who allowed even Americans into China.  Arriving in China in 2011, the newly built airport reminded me of San Francisco’s airport, modern with style.  I was then traveling in a new BMW on newly built highways with, and get this, no other cars on either side of the newly built highways.

“Jiangxi, a southeast Chinese province, is defined by its pastoral landscapes of rice paddies, rivers and mountains. Centered on the Gan River valley, historically it's been on major north-south trade routes. In the northwest, Jingdezhen has been a center of porcelain-making for over 1,000 years. Today the city has many pottery studios and shops, several ceramic museums, and the remains of a Ming-era imperial kiln.”  Google.

So we traveled up to Jiangxi China from Guangzhou China by airplane and then by car.  To make a long story short regarding the fireworks for the Chinese New Year, I was staying on the eight story of a condo building and when the Chinese fireworks started in Jiangxi China, and it was not like the fireworks in Bloomfield, Conn, or in Manhattan, where fireworks were blasted into the sky in one place, like on the edge of water, although that does happen in other parts of China.  Instead of the fireworks being in only one place to watch them, like in America, the fireworks in Jiangxi China were set off by anyone and seemingly everyone.  In other words, it was an every citizen celebration, in a matter of speaking, where the people could take part in the fireworks, not just watch the fireworks being blasted into the air and sky by the professionals.

So when the fireworks started in Jiangxi China, they were everywhere: on the tops of buildings, on every street, in the hallways of buildings, and probably places I could not see nor knew about.  There was so much smoke and noise from the fireworks that I felt like I was in a scene in a war movie.  No joke!  It lasted for two to three hours, maybe more, but everyone was having fun, I am guessing here.  That kind of nationalistic fun celebrating would never happen in America because for one, there are so many laws stopping American citizens from celebrating anything.  And second, America is becoming a police state just like in the time of Hitler and even as it is becoming a police state in China, slowly but surely.  Cameras and cops with guns are everywhere equals a police state!  Pure and simple here, folks.

The point here I think is this.  Probably none of the citizens in Jiangxi China had ever experienced America’s fireworks the way I have for so many years.  And there I was in person experiencing China’s fireworks during their New Year celebration.  It was not really great and fun for me because their fireworks were not really as good or nice up in the sky fireworks as America’s fireworks.  Of course it was a small town and not a huge big city.  But, instead, their fireworks were more like a real celebration for the and by the people and citizens of Jiangxi.  Unlike in America, everyone could have some fun setting off some fireworks for fun.  Of course the real reasons people in America are not allowed to set off their own fireworks is so people do not burn down their own houses and blow up their fingers.

The fireworks in Jiangxi China would never happen on their scale in America.  Meaning, America’s citizens are not allowed to actually have fun celebrating their Fourth of July by setting off fireworks in their backyard or on the side streets of America during America’s Independence Day Celebration of Freedom, the way the people and citizens of Jiangxi China are allowed to celebrate their Chinese New Year.  There was actually more freedom and fun in communist China for their people and citizens of Jiangxi China to celebrate their holiday than there is in America where America’s freedom (s) are being taken away and even the word freedom is becoming to a have less and less magical ring to the word.

But in a way, all of these remarks may simply be technicalities because in the end, maybe it does not matter if a nation’s or a countries’ people and citizens are allowed to set off fireworks in their backyard and on the side streets.  Maybe the point should be American citizens can still read any book they want without going to a prison and American citizens can still talk about and say anything about their past and current elected president without fear of going to prison.  And America’s people and citizens can still practice their own misguided religions too.  Etc. Etc. Etc.

On the other hand maybe the real point of this story and/or essay is this.  All around world and globe, countries celebrate their holidays with fireworks, especially during their New Years celebrations and their own nationalistic holidays.  But more importantly, all around the world and globe, young and innocent boys and girls, whether they live in America or China or whatever nation or country they live in, get to experience the fun and joy of fireworks, so when they all grow old, they will have some good memories to live with as they grow old, and before they die too!