america needs to remember its age
"america really is a third world country"
problematic terminology, i know, but the only summation strong enough to match my most frequent reflection toward home while in europe this weekend.
in amsterdam (the neatherlands) and all around switzerland countrysides i saw well-paved roads and public transportation or bikes or small cars rather than pickup trucks trying to merge between awkwardly sized city streets. europe was all quality food and people able to afford pursuing their dreams (happiness, adventure, family) rather than climbing the corporate ladder.
of course it wasn't all perfect (homelessness, racism, †o name a few), i missed home and am happy to be back in so many ways. there are so many things about america that i do love. i love how much louder we are. i love how much more diverse we are. i love how we express ourselves. i love the microcosms of community, care, and stewardship that we've created from the ground up. i love revolution being in our dna. and i especially love the counter-revolution that's been brewing since our inception.
learning that the neatherlands was celebrating its 751st birthday and switzerland its 600th put things in a very different perspective. the american genocide of its natives was thorough enough to mean we largely started from scratch about 250 years ago. these countries had much more time to colonize and exploit other parts of the world. america has only had a fraction of the time to colonize our own people and the world at the same time. much more to balance for a much larger nation.
while im not supportive of our countries history and decisions, it was interesting to recognize that we're so far behind because we're so much younger. and while we have absolutely fucked up, we have a lot of time to figure out how to fix it. history is long and unruly and we're incomprehensibly small in the world's march of time. and most amazing is that within this small speck that we are, we have the opportunity to do so much. so, any americans out there, lets just keep doing the best we can.