The 4th of July is one tough holiday for a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). Oh, who am I fooling? Any occasion when multitudes of people (6 or more) gather to eat, drink and make merriment is an occasion for me to contemplate the advantages of a monastic life.

But Independence Day has the added bonus of explosives.

What’s more American than sitting outside with insects and strangers in the dark while looking up at blinding explosions and hearing the ka-boom of a cannon or the rat-a-tat-tat of a semi-automatic weapon? I suppose we could all be eating McDonald’s Baked Apple Pie desserts or drinking Boon’s Farm Apple wine (do they even make that stuff any more?).

I know my HSP-ness, my party-phobia and my fireworks-aversion make me an anomaly, an oddity, or just plain weird. People like to judge people like me–I’m such an easy target.

But if I’m strange for being sensitive, I’m in good company. My dog, Scrappy, is more afraid of fireworks than I am–thunder storms, too (which I happen to like).

We’ll both be happy when all the fire-cracker, sparkler, and do-it-yourself bomb-makers in our neighborhood have gotten their incendiary mischief-making out of their systems (and garages). We’ll be overjoyed when the fireworks organizers around our area–who’ve stretched out their displays over 3 nights–have shot off their last frenzied finales.

Scrappy will extract himself from my lap and maybe we’ll both get a little much-need sleep … until some Revolutionary or Civil War battle reenactment shenanigans begin.

Do monasteries allow dogs?