Did we fall back in love with America?

It is not such a clean and easy answer. We loved the trip itself. It was epic, and the sample of the US that we were able to experience during the timeframe we had was mind-opening and deeply rewarding.  Every friend and family member that we were able to visit and get caught up with made me happy to be back in closer proximity to them. Being in places physically matters, both in the context of truly connecting with people, but also to observe and experience interactions and the terrain of the country itself.

Steve ponders the Badlands.

America gets a 5-star review, in my opinion, for the large swaths of beauty in its natural environment and its incredible national parks and monuments. Joshua tree, the Petrified Forest, the Badlands, and the small portion of the Great Lakes we encountered are just a few of the places that I felt deep in my body, and that still feel rich in my memory. As an older white traveler, I also give America 5 stars in the kindness of people all across the country–we felt welcome everywhere we went and felt it was easy to engage in light-hearted and interesting conversations with nearly anyone we encountered. However, I feel that this would likely have been a more mixed experience if we had been visitors of a different race. (Not that I can truly know this as a white person, but reading and talking about this subject with others strongly implies this.) 

Although not well documented online, a docent at the Detroit Institute of Arts, describing this mural detail by Diego Rivera, shared that Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, used the term “monkeys” in a derogatory manner to describe the workers in his factories. Even though workers were paid well, they were viewed as a trainable commodity rather than as skilled individuals.

Ingenuity and gumption are in plain view to learn from and be proud of in America, while at the same time, the freedom of critique about these same things is also refreshingly visible (at least for now!?). For example, it’s kind of thrilling to see a Ford F150 being built in a huge assembly line at the historic Ford Motor Company Rouge Factory, and then it is also thrilling to see the vast murals of Diego Rivera in the Detroit Institute of Art critiquing the ills created by those very same systems. Critique and calling out problems in America are foundational to what our country was founded upon. Being critical, disagreeing with each other, and still reaching a healthy consensus has been an imperative part of America and being an American. But if we take what is in some of the zeitgeist as fact, it feels emotionally like that is slipping away, even if it is not true. So many times on the trip, it felt that what we were experiencing on the ground did not have any resemblance to what we read in the news. We witnessed that critique for change physically rejuvenated cities like Greenville, North Carolina, and that even though the scars of civil war and the stress of immigration are real, in most places, all types of people appear to get along pretty darn well with each other. On the trip, I increasingly felt I was falling in love with the America I witnessed, but not the America that I was reading about.

Quieter times, albeit more frozen, in Helsinki at Cafe Regatta 🙂

There are things about Europe that will always resonate with me more than in America. In Europe, I enjoy that everything is quieter, and perhaps more peaceful in general. Not only are American people’s voices loud, but so also are our cars, buses, construction, restaurants, clubs, and more. I miss the beauty of older buildings. I miss the cleanliness and functionality of mass transit, as well as in many other aspects of life too. (For example, an adequate safety net and effective judicial system means that homelessness and abusive, visible drug use is not, by any means, rampant in Helsinki). But America is where our roots and many of our friends and family are, and we are determined to re-find our way here and contribute in positive ways. Maybe we will even fall back in love with it again.