America the Beautiful
My thoughts about America have always been somewhat complex.
We moved when I was younger, so the memories I have of there no longer dovetail
with the place I imagined it to be. This obviously creates a little bit of tension
in the country where to be critical often means being unpatriotic, but I’m
willing to take the risk of criticism at this time.
The place where I lived was a lot a fun. Both of my parents
were suit-wearing high powered workers, with a little love for farming, so we
had a small farm just outside of the city limits so that they could both go to
work, as well as farm. We had a huge barn that we built ourselves, and acres of
pasture filled with sheep, and a small vegetable garden. If you squinted off
into the distance, you could see the rise of the Beartooth Mountains, crags
along the horizon. Every year we had a grand Independence Day party, complete
with all of the spangles and sparklers that you could ever want, and then watched
the fireworks downtown before setting off a few of our own in the driveway. All
that is gone now. The last time that I went to visit, the landscape had drastically
changed. In the world of sprawling cities, our pastures are now a tidy
subdivision, paved and pristine, and the oak tree that dominated our yard is
now just a memory.
America is a place where consumerism is valued. We want to
buy. We want to have that dream of a white picket-fence house in a
sub-division, working our corporate jobs. This has become what happiness looks
like. Unfortunately, now that the country has become more city-centric, it has
become more and more difficult for us to return to our more rural/suburban
roots. Yes, I live in a city now, but it is nowhere near as large as the cities
of the US that I have lived in. It also doesn’t hold much appeal. I’d be much
happier living 45 minutes outside of town.
That would be bliss for me.
I love America. I really do. But I find that we are slowly
moving away from that love of the wide-open air that was endless fields and wilderness
and into what is more and more a society of automatons. I suppose the real
lesson is that progress is important, but are the things that made this country
what it is. It’s about freedom, it’s about exploring, and it’s about being who
you want to be. Cities are fun, but what happens when we are all in the city?
I dislike the way that we have moved into this petty,
argumentative culture of hatred, discrimination, and greed. It seems that no
one wants to talk about what is important in life, which is health, adventure,
and love. I hope that you all have a great 4th of July, and that you
take this time to think about what America means to you.