The Holy Cow! Tour
India 2008
You see, I'm an American. This I know about myself. I didn't find this out by taking American 
Government from Dean Lundblad at CHS or when I took Idaho History from Mrs. Hopperstad in the fourth grade. (It's appropriate to note that that particular class was and is, my all time favorite. Year long self-directed study of anything Idaho, culminating in a trip to the Cataldo Mission, a place that still puts me in joyful tears of another realm. It's a bold and known fact, I love me My Idaho. And as usual, I digress.) I didn't find out about being a proud and grateful American by listening to my father, who was a prominent figure in Lake County politics and was precisely opinionated about all national and international current affairs. I didn't know that I wa
s an American by letting my mother drag me into the DAR and Colonial Dames, because I got back. In the gene pool, that is. No. I didn't know and appreciate that I am an American until I began to travel.
Government from Dean Lundblad at CHS or when I took Idaho History from Mrs. Hopperstad in the fourth grade. (It's appropriate to note that that particular class was and is, my all time favorite. Year long self-directed study of anything Idaho, culminating in a trip to the Cataldo Mission, a place that still puts me in joyful tears of another realm. It's a bold and known fact, I love me My Idaho. And as usual, I digress.) I didn't find out about being a proud and grateful American by listening to my father, who was a prominent figure in Lake County politics and was precisely opinionated about all national and international current affairs. I didn't know that I wa
s an American by letting my mother drag me into the DAR and Colonial Dames, because I got back. In the gene pool, that is. No. I didn't know and appreciate that I am an American until I began to travel. 
And that's the thing I never expected. You learn about others but you learn about yourself. Your childhood, your faith values, your family, your community, your outlooks. And when that plane touches down on your USA point of embarkment and you feel the cool, dry air of the jetway, you say, each and every time, I'm home. God bless the USA. And sometimes, you are exalting and sometimes you are asking.
So I'm an American. And I have to swat myself upon occasion, to remember that as much as I value being an American, it's just one of the ways to be in the world. Only one of the ways. Naturally, I believe it's a better way and in most ways, a superior way. But when I am being my best self, I know that it's just one of the many ways. One of the many ways to be in the world. Swat, swat, swat.
The Maharani Jabel
On Location
Goa, India
3 comments:
...it's just one of the ways to be in the world.
It's also becoming a minority position in the world...we must understand this too.
It hasn't been in my cards in this lifetime (yet) to leave the US but, when I do and upon my return, I know in my gut I will experience all you say here because I have thought this through many times over the years.
One thing my Mom used to tell my brothers and I was the interior sense of "home" and happiness she experienced upon her return to the states after an extended European trip in the ealy 1950's. She told us how elated she was to see Times Square again and felt as if she wanted to kneel and kiss the ground. I knew what she conveying, it's such a visceral phenomenon.
But when I am being my best self
Ohhh, what a great line...
I know that it's just one of the many ways. One of the many ways to be in the world.
Indeed, yes, indeed.
Swat, swat, swat.
LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!
Hysterical.
Brilliant!
C'est vrai!!!
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My brothers and me. Not I, me.
If my Mom saw that she'd have a cow.
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