It’s a dreary Wednesday afternoon and it’s been raining heavily off and on since Shawna and I arrived in Tanah Rata, the biggest of all of the small towns that populate the Cameron Highlands. We came here to hike and see a magical-looking mossy forest but we’ve yet to accomplish that goal.
That’s fine though—it’s fine if we don’t even get to do the hike—the rain is nice and it has basically forced us to stay inside and reevaluate. As well, the place we’re staying is very clean and reasonably priced and there are a handful of coffee shops nearby. They also have laundry service and a dryer so I will get a pair of jeans washed for the first time in almost two months (too humid to air-dry jeans here…don’t know why I brought jeans to Southeast Asia…) and temporarily abstain from washing my socks, shirts and undies in sinks that I sometimes don’t even feel comfortable washing my hands in.
Me looking out the window of a train in Bangkok…searching for America…but I didn’t find it…America is a state of mind.
This is the second year in a row I’ve been overseas on the Fourth of July, America’s Independence Day. I’m not at all a patriotic person and in many ways I don’t identify with American culture or much of what happens in American politics. I really don’t like flags or the idea of flags because I think most people can’t handle them responsibly. Regardless, this year I feel more emotional about being gone on Independence Day.
Numerous times while traveling I’ve heard people shit-talking (I mean purposeless, unidirectional shit-talking, not engaging in rational criticism or analysis) America and Americans. Sometimes they’re other Americans, sometimes people who have never been to America and have no interest in letting any sort of positive adjective about America or Americans seep into their very intellectual and theoretical diatribes. I usually laugh it off—most of the time it tends to be extreme idealists or people just bashing America because it’s been the cool thing to do for years now. That trend probably won’t decline until another country or group rises to constantly command the world’s attention, at which point it will become fashionable to bash them.
On this trip as opposed to my other major trips (Germany 2006, Spain 2007, China 2011) I’ve also talked with more people what America is supposed to be. America is best as a concept, the pure idea of personal freedoms and self-determination, no political agenda attached. However, a country will always be run by humans (until we eventually eradicate ourselves) and the implementation of government in America will hardly stack up to the real essence of America. …just felt like writing that….
I think we know that no places is really better than another, places are just places, people attach meaning. Boundaries are somewhat arbitrary and cultures are not truly superior or inferior to each other. As well, no one chooses where to be born and people definitely do not earn the right to be born in any particular location. With this in mind I wonder why people say they are proud to be an American (or whatever nationality/ethnicity they are). I feel that type of statement is complete ignorance—there is no reason to “be proud” of just happening to be born in a random place. I think that this sort of non-thinking has the seeds of unecessary nationalism. I guess people have a natural need to identify and separate themselves, oftentimes elevating their own group or lowering other groups in the process. I’ll stop now.
All tangents aside, the point of this post was to say that I have reached an unprecedented level of apprecation and thankfulness. I am so thankful to have unwittingly been born in a country that cherishes and supports freedom, one that has grown more and more over its history (and is still growing) to accept and respect others regardless of differences in gender, race and beliefs.
Big thanks to the guy on the quarter, George Washington, and the other Founding Fathers, for getting this whole thing started!!