That isn’t a birthday cake: it’s a brushfire.

I mean, really: put 246 candles on anything and light them up. The smoke alarm will signal an evacuation order, and the party will be over before you a scoop the ice cream and pass out the spoons. It’s pretty much official: the Declaration of Independence was approved by 13 colonies on July 4, 1776… and history would declare that as the birthday for the USA. Today marks 246 years…

Here’s a factoid: most efforts that require human connection don’t remain viable. Oft-quoted statistics are usually rooted in generalized facts: 80% of new businesses fail in the first five years. In marriages the annual divorce count is 750,000; the average length of a marriage is 8.2 years. Measures of commitment – by people, to things created by people – is dropping fast.

Invent a new product or service and expect competition to best your baby in short order. Start a company, and work on your IPO plans as soon as your initial funding allows you to incorporate. Unless your marriage is solidly faith-based, expect to have a pre-nup on your wedding plan to-do list. If you want all of your best efforts to make something happen to last, get some friends together and birth a nation. That’s been the American exception to the “use-by date” conundrum: will we last?

The USA is showing its age. Fourth of July celebrations used to be apolitical unifiers: when the hot dogs and flags come out, the differences were left on the opinion page, and everyone would rise to sing the National Anthem together. Today, there are more buses going to protests than to parties. Barbecues will be the setting to roast politicians instead of grilling ribs. Membership in the NRA is going up: for some, the “R” is for rifles; for others, the “R” is for rhetoric; both are being used – today – with a shoot-to-kill precision. Disagreement has become increasingly deadly.

Most Boomers have some foggy remembrance of America’s Bicentennial celebrations. It was back in 1976 – in the last millennium – and it was a unifying experience. America – and Americans – came together to mark the milestone of the Grand Experiment: the first country formed “by the people, for the people” based on democracy and liberty, to give the power to the people as the rulers of the government, instead the historic norm where a government rules the people.

Don’t look for any residual of that bicentennial blessing today; it’s gone. Much of what was accepted as reasonable in ’76 is now contested by someone, somewhere. The line – from the Pledge of Allegiance – that raises hackles in ‘22: “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all…”

The number of opt-outs from “the Pledge” is spiking; the voices in unison expressing that sentiment is shrinking. Aspirations to dissect and divide America based on ideological differences are widespread; conversations about particular states exiting the Union are now recurring as differences spike and debates turn ugly.

“One nation:” Are we still the “United” States of America?

Then, “…under God.” The rejection of the historic role of faith in the founding of America is now a widespread tenant of most university faculties, and the rise of functional agnosticism is the product of modern culture’s impact on the impressionable next generation. More Americans dismiss the existence of God today than at any time in our cultural past.

“Indivisible?” Political polarization has fractured families, friends and faith communities. The absence of “liberty and justice for all” now incites public protests and uncontrolled mayhem.

Happy birthday, America. Maybe it’s time to pray…