The United States celebrated the Fourth of July a few days ago. I hope your holiday was fun. Just as importantly, I hope that it was safe.

Summer holidays often give us the opportunity to spend leisure time with our friends and family members. In this summer, this leisure time can include visiting parks, having picnics and barbecues, participating in sports, swimming, boating, or other activities.

Many of these gatherings of family and friends involve food and drink. That’s not surprising. We have to eat, right? As a person who likes to eat and comes from a family of eaters, food can be a vital part of celebrations and even a reason to celebrate itself.

Eating responsibly is the key. I know that I can’t eat unlimited amounts of all the foods I want without feeling the consequences. The same thing is true with alcoholic beverages. Responsibility also seems to be the key here.

Too much of anything is not a good thing, whether that anything is food, alcohol, shopping, or even exercise. Moderation helps us limit our actions before things get out of hand. Moderation also helps us appreciate things more. By not receiving all of what we want all of the time, we can better appreciate those things when we do receive them.

I’m not trying to be a Puritan here, I’m just arguing for some restraint and common sense. It seems that forces urge us to want more, more, and more, but more isn’t always the best thing for us. Unless it’s cat videos on the Internet. Unless we’re at work.

Seriously, though, responsibility does seem to be the key word. Have you noticed that beer companies now advise people to “drink responsibly” or “celebrate responsibly”? I never thought I’d endorse the messages on beer commercials, but I agree with those messages. Not that I endorse or believe everything in beer commercials.