i know i am usually ripping apart the country in which i live but i am allowed to. That is one of the great perks to living here. This is the country in which i live. It is where i turned a house into a home. It is where the people i care about the most also happen to reside.
Please do not faint, but this time i am writing in defense of America. Though i choose not to pledge allegiance to the flag and i do not get emotional nor cover my heart as the ridiculously long "Star Spangled Banner" is sung i am not sure i could live a lifetime in another country (or possibly i do not see another country handling a lifetime of me).
Sure, maybe this is a little fueled by the lingering buzz from the recent passing of the health care bill (something that is decades overdue) but if so, only slightly. This week i realized that on a day to day basis i truly am glad that i live here.
In realizing this, however, i also became acutely aware of why no one who is not American will ever be able to understand what it is that makes this country so great. It has taken me more than three decades to understand it myself.
America is not a country as much as it is a collection of individuals. This is simultaneously its greatest strength and the source of its greatest weakness.
It is not a country in the traditional sense with a national character or sense of self. Too much space and too many different types of people are found within its borders. A collection of individuals.
To get to this personal epiphany i found myself thinking about those who inspire me. My favorite musicians: American. My favorite artists: American. My favorite writers: American. Not to say i do not like works by those outside of my own country, because i do. That is what makes me want to travel, to see what inspired these other artists. But ultimately the art i cannot live without is done by Americans.
Skateboarding, punk rock, bebop jazz... these things could not have possibly started in any other country. Kerouac, Shepard Fairey, Minor Threat... could only happen in America. It is a unique place with a lot of room to be unique in.
This collection of individuals also stunts this country's potential. With all these varying personalities "unanimous" is seemingly impossible. EVERYTHING is polarized. The majority is frequently hard to identify, with seemingly infinite shades of grey containing subdivisions of subdivisions along any front. Most of the time we seem dysfunctional. All of the time we are unmanageable. But you cannot have one without the other.
i now realize that all of the things i hate about this country are the price i pay for all the things i love about this country. Just do not expect me to keep quiet about any of it.
