Sarah Hoyt reprises something wonderful she wrote in 2013, from her perspective as one who grew up outside of America, but came here, adapted, and figured out what we are about. She holds the mirror up to us and shows us what is wonderful and amazing about our country:
-We’re playful.Read more here.
-We spontaneously organize in clubs and associations.
-We don’t take orders well.
-We fix it.
–We are flexible. We change, and the society allows us to change. The sense of humor, the organization, the initiative, all of it adds up to us saying “just because I’ve always been like that, doesn’t mean I’ll be like that tomorrow. And society doesn’t try to keep us in our appointed pigeon hole.
And this is probably why you can become an American. Most other nationalities, while you can naturalize, you’ll never “really” be whatever they are.
Here? Despite the idiots running around hyphenating themselves, you can be an American no matter how funny you look or how strange you sound. (Trust me. I know whence I speak.)
-And this is why we have a positive craze for self-improvement. This can get outright silly with New Age stuff and cleansing your aura, but it also means that most of us aspire to being life long learners, even those who aren’t.This is why despite the fact that our secondary education (and primary too, for that matter) suck rotten eggs, we continue to have an educated populace. It’s also why finding out someone “only” has a high school education means nothing. My plumber is an expert on the civil war and its weapons. One of my friends who has “only” a high school education and from a part of the country not known for the excellence of its teaching could give lessons to most of my literature professors.
...we regard jobs as things you do for a while, and learning as the way to get another/different job.
Which is good, because
– The future comes from America. Americans are mad in love with the future. We’re adult enough to know sometimes there are (d*mnably) rough patches, but by and large “every day, in every way, we’re getting better and better.” And just wait till we finish tinkering and cajoling and inventing tomorrow.
Come and give me a hand. We’ll come out of this collapse thing better than ever, stronger than ever. The future? Man, is it going to be snazzy, and new, and completely unexpected.
Boy, are you going to love it!
You ain’t seen nothing like us yet!
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