Happy Semiquincentennial, Everyone!

First, I apologize for the long gap in posting. I was just teaching so much in April-June, plus lots of family and other things going on, that I just didn’t have the time or energy or mindset to post on the blog. I teach in a year-round school, so classes just ended on June 25, and they start up again on July 7. However, I’m not scheduled much in July, so I hope I can get back on track.

I’m writing this over the July 4th weekend, and it’s a big one–it’s been 250 years since the adoption of the US Declaration of Independence. Now, this has should have been a HUGE celebration for me as a SUPER history nerd. Indeed, last year I was excited about it and had a lot of possible plans. But as the event approached, I found myself lacking any enthusiasm at all. As late as the middle of last week, I was thinking I wouldn’t do anything at all to observe the day.

That’s a BIG deal for someone like me who, as I’ve said many times on the blog, celebrates EVERYTHING! So what happened? What caused my lack of joy about something that is such a significant accomplishment for democracy?

I realize now, although I didn’t recognize it at the time, that I was suffering from Seminquincentenial Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump Derangement Syndrome is usually definined as irrational dislike or opposition to President Trump and his policies, and is usually used by his supporters to dismiss the critiques of those who disagree with him. I claim this, not because my criticisms are uninformed or inappropriate, because they are not. But usually I don’t let my constant disappointment in his statements, actions, and policies get me down. Plus, the things that were upsetting me are relatively minor compared to the mass unlawful deportations of immigrants to the US or the illegal war he alone started with Iran, largely in order to distract people from the stalled Epstein files investigation. Those are much bigger deals and are more legitimate reasons to get depressed about the state of US politics.

I think that what was really getting to me was that President Trump was making EVERYTHING about him, whereas I thought the Seminquincentenial should be about US. When he got into office, he promised this great celebration. He discovered that Congress had created a bipartisan commission to celebrate the event in 2016 that had been working on inclusive celebrations in all states. But apparently they were not open to some of his ideas about how to celebrate like having Patriot Games, as explained on Wikipedia:

On December 17, 2025, Trump unveiled more detailed plans for the “Patriot Games,” which will consist of “one young man and one young woman from each state and territory.”^[13] The proposal has incited attention from social media users and various political figures for its purported similarities with the competition in the post-apocalyptic Hunger Games media franchise.^[14][15]

As a literature teacher who has taught the book The Hunger Games, which I think is a brilliant series about authoritarian governments and ways to oppose them, I can’t tell you how much that disgusts me. If they happen, I don’t think it will involve killing each other, but it’s not about coming together to create a united country that works together. This is still coming in August.

In the meantime, President Trump held UFC Freedom 250, a wrestling match in some temporary monstrosity on the grounds of the White House featuring fighters in an eight-sided cage with cryptocurrency advertisements. It, too, was supposed to honor the Semiquincetennial, for some reason, but just happened to fall on Trump’s 80th birthday.

It goes on and on. There is the Great American State Fair, which pushed the traditional Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, which has been held for two weeks around July 4th since 1967, to the side, and charged states $500,000 to participate without any accountability about how the money is being spent. Then there is Trump’s image on any 250th governmental commemerative thing he can think of:

Not only is it totally inappropriate, the images are so CREEPY! Even his signature is creepy. Are those images really how he wants to be remembered?

Anyway, both my husband and my son were going to be out of town, so it was just me and the cats at home. I had various invitations to join friends at different events, but I just wasn’t feeling it. So as of July 1, I thought I was going to give the Semiquincentennial Trump Show a hard pass and just stay home and read a book.

But on Thursday, July 2, my fairy godmother showed up. She waved her magic wand, and suddenly everything changed. As the day wore on, I increasingly got out of my funk and decided I would NOT let this man keep me from celebrating something that is SO MUCH BIGGER than he is.

The name of my fairy godmother? Who else but the INCOMPARABLE Taylor Swift.

Like everyone, I had read rumors about her getting married sometime soon, but I don’t spend much time on these celebrity gossip things. I can’t even keep up with her music, because she releases albums faster than I have time to listen to them. But I have always liked Taylor Swift as an artist and more importantly, as a person. Some of her lyrics are just phenomenal. I actually teach some of her songs in my literature classes because many are exquisite bits of poetry. One of my favorites is a line from her 2010 song “Mine” in which she says, “You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter.” Those 10 words express SO much…the relationship between father and daughter, the person the daughter chose to be as a result of that relationship, and the challenge to her world view by her new romantic relationship. Brilliant. And there are lots of others.

This woman went knocking on music producers doors as a young adolescent and got her first recording contract at 15. Unbelievable! She built a fan community like no other. She’s been criticized and knocked around her entire career but kept on keeping on. And kept on winning award after award after award. She was only 19 when Kanye West interrupted her award presentation at the MTV Video Awards and was able to make jokes about it when she hosted Saturday Night Live a few months later. All of her romantic relationships have been on public display, as have been her many break-ups. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to have the public commenting on with whom you fall in love and how why you had your heart broken once again.

Another thing I love about Taylor Swift was that as she grew in power and reputation, she has used her voice and her position to support others. She hasn’t been a political powerhouse like Bruce Springsteen and others, but in recent years she has stated her position and urged people to do some research and to vote. When she thought Spotify and some other online online companies were not paying fair compensation for musicians, she withdrew her songs until they changed their policies. She didn’t do that for herself; Spotify was never a big income source for her. But it is a big deal for the many musicians who don’t have national tours and felt forced to share their songs for free if necessary. She spoke up and faced a public sexual assualt trial about being groped by a radio host, probably knowing that if men thought they could get away with that with her, no telling what they were doing with lesser-known female artists. She has songs that are used in anti-bullying campaigns and pro LBGTQ+ causes.

But my favorite Taylor Swift BOSS move was when the record company that owned the rights to her early recordings (as is common for people starting out in the industry) refused to sell the rights back to her and instead sold them to someone she felt had harassed and gaslighted her for years. She probably went home and cried, feeling betrayed. But then she got up and said she would make that multi-million investment worthless by re-recording them all–the Taylor’s version editions. And it took a while, but she did. And NO ONE wanted the old versions anymore. The epitome of Don’t Get Mad, Get Even.

I love that Taylor Swift has always worn her heart on her sleeve. I love that despite all she has gone through, she has retained that teenage belief in a romantic happy ending. So I have followed her romance with Travis Kelce through the gossip magazines and have wished them both well. They seem like a really good match for each other. I love that Travis Kelce has his own celebrity in a totally different sector and apparently wears his heart on his sleeve as well, as he was willing to admit publicly that he made a Taylor-fan-style bracelet with his phone number on it and was frustrated he couldn’t get it to her at her concert that he attended. I love that Mama Swift heard his story and checked him out and encouraged her daughter, who thought she wouldn’t have anything in common with a professional athlete, to at least give him a shot. I hope for them that this is a relationship that will last.

But OK, back to the Semiquincentennial. So I had been aware of the rumors, but hadn’t given them much attention until Thursday morning, when Taylor and Travis announced they were giving away $26 million to 20 charities accross the country, mostly in the communities that are important to them. That’s when I knew it was true. And what a fabulous way to kick things off! As far as my research has found, NO big celebrity wedding has done anything close to that. A FEW big weddings–George Clooney and Amal, Brad and Angelina, Harry and Meghan, among others–either sold their wedding pictures and donated the proceeds to charity, or asked people to donate money instead of giving them presents. But no one else that I’ve found have started their wedding extravaganza with donations from their own funds at that scale.

So I started reading, kind of obsessively, about the wedding. And once again, I was blown away with the amount of negative comments about getting married at Madison Square Gardens. Like this:

“It’s so impersonal“—ummm, do you remember who we are talking about? Taylor Swift, who just had the most profitable tour of all time that included 149 shows in 51 cities across 5 continents, primarily in indoors stadiums? And that was her 6th concert tour? A stadium like Madison Square Gardens probably feels like home to Taylor at this point. And unlike sports teams, she’s only had massive wins at that stadium.

“It’s cold and ugly“–See first sentence of response above. Of all the acclaim around the Eras tour, complaining that the setting felt cold and ugly is, like, NEVER said. I’m pretty sure Taylor and her team of professionals, who deal with this ALL THE TIME, can transform the space into a fairyland…if that’s what they are going for.

“It’s not intimate”–Intimacy is based on relationship, not space. The bride and the groom are big feelers, not only about each other, but about their families, their friends, their teams, their business partners, and such. I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of intimacy during this wedding.

I could go on. But the point is that I was sure that Taylor was going to have the celebration she wanted to have, regardless of the logistical issues and all that. And she was not going to be dissauded by any of the naysayers or complainers.

So I totally believed in this wedding. And what little we know about it so far is that it was, indeed, magical. Perfect for my fairy godmother!

It got me to thinking: Why am I allowing this self-centered man to ruin my Semiquincentennial? I need to channel my inner Taylor and ignore his ridiculous and outrageous behavior and celebrate this milestone in our history. I decided I wasn’t going to make a huge deal out of it, but I wasn’t going to sit at home in the dark like a grouch on Halloween.

So the next day, after I sent my son off on his 4th of July adventure, I texted my friend who had invited me to a late 4th of July lunch with her family to ask if I could still come, to which she said of course. I started to think about some things I could make. That afternoon, my official kick-off for the Semiquincentennial celebration was going to our Freedom Friday rally in downtown Cary with a new sign about Trump’s corruption and suggesting people vote for candidates who are looking out for the people instead of themselves. Yes, it was 99 degrees, and I spent an hour dancing and waving to people and holding up my sign. It made me hot and tired and thirsty but also joyful and like I was making a difference.

Because really, I think the message of the Semiquincentennial is that democracy is precious and we can’t take it for granted. It’s under attack right now, I believe. And really, the best way to celebrate the Semiquincentennial isn’t about food or fireworks or festivals. It’s about getting out there and doing the work to keep our Democratic system alive and growing. And I don’t know any better way to do that then standing out there among We the People of the United States and encouraging them to do their part in making democracy strong again.

That night, I knew I had done the right them when I first saw this:

Enjoy yourself, Fairy Godmother!

But I knew even more that I was right when later I saw another of the wonderful AI generated posts from the White House:

Apparently the White House posted this within the HOUR that the real photograph went online. And what even is the point of this? Is there really anyone with access to the Internet who DOESN’T know that Trump is the President? How narcissistic do you have to be that you can’t allow the biggest pop star on the planet to be the center of attention for ONE HOUR?

This is exactly what popped into my head when I saw that post:

On July 4th, I got up early and went on my early morning Nature Meditation walk before it was a zillion degrees. Then I put on my Penzey’s t-shirt:

And I went to the Cary Farmers Market like I do every week when I’m in town. The vegetables don’t stop growing or the chickens stop laying eggs or the cows and pig stop eating just because it’s the Semiquincentennial. And the farmers don’t get paid unless they sell the fruits of their labor…and their labor this week was HOT AND SWEATY. So I bought fresh, healthy local food to sustain us over the holiday and through the next week. I threw in a hydration tip for everyone because we’ve got to look after our farmers, right?

A couple of my good friends from our times together homeschooling (although all our children are college age or on their own by now) often hang out and catch up at the Farmers Market. But it was too hot to hang out in the sun. So we went to a nearby botique hotel and had a drink together.

We had a lovely time and then split up to do the rest of our July 4th.

I went out to have a late lunch with one of my good friends from our spiritual center and her family. I made some healthier high protein, low sugar double chocolate cookies (because what’s more American than chocolate) and a bruschetta-like appetizer with toasted sourdough rye bread from Breadwalla at the Farmers Market, whipped ricotta, and fresh cherry tomatoes and herbs from the Farmers Market (they sell cheese, but not ricotta cheese). I ate too much, so I tried to digest and watched others play card games. They are they kind of people who make you feel like family, even if you technically aren’t. So that was exactly what I needed this 4th of July.

The next day, I was doing the meditation and the Practitioner duties for the service at our Spiritual Center. My meditation focused on the spiritual significance of the Semiquincentennial. I won’t go into it here, but it felt like it was a nice way to wrap up my Semiquincentennial celebrations.

The picture at the top of this blog is the toast I had by myself the evening of July 4 before I retired to bed and book. I have a towel that represents the traditional 4th of July values, and a purple cocktail in recognition of my fairy godmother and her fabulous nuptials (apparently lavender was a predominant color). It turned out things worked out perfectly, which they often do if you just relax and let things unfold as they should. The funny thing is that earlier this week, I had gone to the liquor store to replenish my tequila for Semiquincentennial margaritas. Because of other errands I was doing, I went to the Morrisville liquor store instead of one of the Cary stores. I had never been there before, but they had a purple gin that the Cary stores don’t offer. It looked fun so I got a bottle. At the time, I had no idea that Taylor was actually getting married on Friday and that her color scheme was purple. But there I was with the perfect ingredients to make a beautiful purple cocktail for my Semiquincentennial Tayvis Wedding celebration.

I hope your Semiquincentennial went well. Feel free to share your insights or activities below.