Independence

Another 4th of July has passed.   

Hopefully the fireworks are gone and I can sleep with the windows open tonight and my dogs can quit shaking and walking under my feet because they don't like the  sounds that the neighbors are making to show their independence.  This photo courtesy of my friend Ricardo.

Have you ever really thought about the word, or what the freedoms we have really mean?  I found a lot in the online dictionary.  Here is my favorite.

In`de*pend"ence\, n. [Cf. F. ind['e]pendance.]

1. The state or quality of being independent; freedom from dependence; exemption from reliance on, or control by, others; self-subsistence or maintenance; direction of one's own affairs without interference.

Let fortune do her worst, . . . as long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence. --Pope.

2. Sufficient means for a comfortable livelihood.

Declaration of Independence (Amer. Hist.), the declaration of the Congress of the Thirteen United States of America, on the 4th of July, 1776, by which they formally declared that these colonies were free and independent States, not subject to the government of Great Britain.