The Existential Allure of Amusement Parks

Every night at 9:30 p.m. we hear the Disneyland fireworks. Our Santa Ana home is just five miles from the tourist throngs of Anaheim, and the nightly ritual of thunder-like booms is strangely comforting. Whatever is happening in our lives, whatever is happening on Twitter, there will still be fireworks in Disneyland, delighting thousands of revelers, young and old, on the crowded streets around Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

At approximately 9:46 p.m. the fireworks end. The throngs disperse and a m...