I hope there are fireworks at the baseball stadium tonight.

It used to be rare to get fireworks after a baseball game. There would be fireworks about three times a year (usually around summer holidays, especially near or on July 4th), and those nights would sell out--or get a whole lot more people coming to the ballpark.

Sometime during this new century, baseball (as an organization) figured out people really like fireworks, and so more firework nights were added. There is now at least one firework night a month at Isotopes Stadium (the local Triple A Albuquerque Isotopes play there), and some months have three.

There is something about bombs bursting in the air (safely and with pretty colors) that rouses the hearts of Americans. We like the big, showy, colorful ones. The big booms and wide sprays. And we want it all at arms length.

Being a nation that has been actively at war since 2001, one would think we've had enough of explosions. Especially fiery outbursts echoing in the air. But it seems to have increased our appetite for it all.

Maybe others don't see the connection between being at war, watching bombs bursting in the air and singing a song about bombs bursting in the air as our national anthem. Or maybe it's just a part of our nature to revere pretty lights and explosions.

Oh, I lost my head for a minute. What am I talking about? Did you see how all the lights crinkled out at the end? That was so cool...if only war were so pretty and harmless.

Hope is the American Dream. It's also the cheap popsicle sold to most of the nation to salve the feeling of never achieving quite what we think the Dream stands for.

But if you have hope, then you'll never stop trying.

Oh sure, you'll probably take some time off of hoping and just sit outside on a warm day and slowly melt with a favorite cold beer. And that's what the fireworks are for. That's what July 4th is for. The times when we don't have to actively hope because it's done for us by proxy. It's our vacation from hoping all the time.

The rest of the time, well, we've gotta keep hoping for a better world. Keep hoping we'll get out of this wartime mentality. Hope we don't get fired. Hope our kids don't do all the bad things they could do. Hope our parents have good retirement programs. Hope our in-laws won't tell us how to live our lives. Hope the DWI checkpoint isn't on our regular way home. Hope we'll win the lottery. Hope the gas lasts longer before we have to fill up again. Hope our grilled food doesn't get us sick. Hope we have good health insurance (or hope we get universal coverage in this country before we die from some untreated malady). Hope the movie isn't sold out. Hope there is a free parking space. Hope to find our great love. Hope to have a normal child. Hope traffic isn't so bad today. Hope to be out of debt someday.

And on and on. Everyday is a string of hopes. Sure, we may actively work so some of these hopes come true, but the most popular hopes are ones we can't really do anything about. And those are the things that keep us going. Because, maybe, we can beat the odds. I sure hope so.

I haven't lost hope. I can't. What else can anyone live on without hope? Especially if you can't fall back on reality. Or a pile of money. And since hope is limitless, it's worth more than cash. Here's hoping.

Matt Worley hopes everyone has a good Independence Day.