I am not quite as brown as an African.
That is a fact especially clear when I am seen standing near to Africans.
And yet, Travis and I are both pretty brown, (helped along by yesterday's day at the lake.)
I promise pictures are to come, both from Africa and from this week since we've been home.
The ones from this week may include Travis and I in umbrella hats at the parade, a picture with our friends Cole and Suzie before they left for New York, and a group picture of the Pitchers at the parade.
But I am at work now, so I don't have all my pictures.
I wanted to share one of my theories about the fourth of July:
The things we do to celebrate the fourth of July are a smaller version of the things we love as Americans.
For example: We go to parades.
Americans (I'm stereotyping now, don't get all huffy) like useless but pretty things that are just for show. Americans like showing off what they've done or can do. Americans like sitting around and watching things happen without being involved.
We ride carnival rides.
Americans like to do things that are risky or exciting or scary, just to prove that they can. Americans like to have exorbitant amounts of fun, (even to the extent that they may not actually be having fun - Calvin and Hobbes, anyone?)
We wear costumes/dress the same as our whole family.
Americans LOVE costumes. Haven't you ever been to a city? or a marathon? And those grumpy middle-aged men who can't be talked into a costume still wear the same blue American-flag bedecked Old Navy t-shirt as all of their kids and as their wife under the pretense of... keeping together? Americans have some of the most boring clothes as well as the most useless income, so the need for costumes makes perfect sense. (When I say useless income I mean, after paying for the necessities there is still money left... what should we spend it on? Costumes, of course.)
We wave flags, shout out the constitution, and dress very patriotically.
Because even Americans who claim to hate the USA can't help but be ethnocentric.... I mean.... patriotic.
Okay, I'm done.
Happy 6th of July.
And happy independence day.
1 comment:
Stereotypes do not make for much intellectual nourishment.
An alternate view:
The vet in the parade with the missing extremity is certainly not demonstrating a useless nor pretty thing. Nor the grand Marshall, like your Great Grandpa Arnold, who lived in service of others in the Urban League, Adoption Services, Church, Public Safety and Law Enforcement. Those of us on the sidewalks may be there to pay respect, show community solidarity, watch our child in the band, and salute the Flag under which these parades take place. Also on that sidewalk are Doctors, Scientists, Mechanics, Mothers and many others who are certainly involved. They clap, and stand, and talk, and pay taxes, and vote, and patronize business,
Carnival rides push us beyond our normal comfort zone. In some way they are a metaphor for the adventure life places before us all. All we have to do is buy the ticket and ride. ...like joining the military, undergoing complicated surgery, deep sea exploration. Fun is relative, but happiness is the more oft fleeting goal. Calvin and Hobbes is apropos, He is a child- and like a child, is all opinion and no accountability.
We should be proud and never ashamed of American Exceptionalism. It has provided the shining beacon on the hill for many other cultures to throw off the yoke of oppression and make the sacrifices necessary for freedom. The result of individual freedom is an opportunity to create wealth and investment which in turn creates income. That cycle allows us to be the most charitable nation in the world; no matter what clothes we wear,
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