Its America's birthday.

My thoughts about America have always been somewhat complex. We moved to Canada when I was younger, so the memories I have of the America of my childhood 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 I remember painting white, 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. I moved back to that town in my twenties, and would occasionally drive past. 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 have happily lived in cities, but I definitely don't now. It also doesn’t hold much appeal. I’d be much happier living 45 minutes outside of town.  That would be bliss for me. A population of 75,000 seems like a lot.

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?

Now, I bet you thought I was going to talk about politics. Well, here it is. I live in Montana, surrounded by Trump supporters. These people are my neighbors. They are my friends. They are the people I see every day. The people I share my life with. It's not so easy as "cut them out".

I do not think that the founding fathers would approve of the way that we have moved into this 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. As we see the headlines about children separated from families, I think we can all agree that what we need is more compassion and more kindness. I hope that you all have a great 4th of July, and that you take this time to think about the kind of America you want, and how we can achieve that beautiful vision.