My First Date With The United States...

Like so many things in my life, I have had a very love/hate relationship with these great United States. Raised a hemisphere away, America was always a part of who I was, but not a big enough part for me to muster up any significant patriotic display. Growing up, America was just the big rich country where I could get find baseball cards and get free refills. Once I finally moved here, my impression of this country did not change much. Perhaps it was the ignorance of global issues that I encountered here, or maybe it was the aspects of Southern culture I just couldn't understand, but what ever it was, I just didn't think America was all that it was cracked up to be. After I became serious about my relationship with Christ, I was given the theological justification for my apathy towards the homeland: "If we are all aliens here on earth, why does it even matter where we are from?" (1 Peter 2:11)

AP US History in 12th grade was the first time in my life that I actually became interested in things about this country. It is during this semester that I found a passion for learning about the American Revolution, the westward expansion, the presidency, and FDR. I actually started to feel the first few warning signs of (dare I say) patriotism? The problem is, most of what I know about American culture comes from my time spent here in the Bible Belt. That would be like getting all of your knowledge about females from one experience with an out of style, loud, annoying, yet mildly attractive ex-girlfriend. The United States is HUGE! Each region of this country is equally important and necessary to the overall national identity. I have traveled around the south and north, but now it is time to follow the logical conclusions of "manifest destiny" and head westward. On Monday, Luke, Myles and I will head out on a 40 day roadtrip across this great nation. This type of trip is the only way to really experience America in it's fullness. Stops in cities like Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Seattle, Portland, and Sacramento will show me firsthand the complexities and struggles of American urban life. Natural wonders like The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier National Park, Olympia National Park, and Carlsbad Caverns will fill me with wonder at the Creator of this amazing beauty. It is only appropriate that I recently discovered the beautiful art of jazz--America's first indigenous music. No other music could do a better job narrating the American open road than the wide open improvisation of Louis Armstrong, Dizzie Gillespie, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk. Armed with a large jazz repertoire, I also plan on traveling with one of the greatest truly American writers--Henry David Thoreau. The musings of Walden and Civil Disobedience will haunt and inspire my thinking on the open road.

I'm going out to find America--but more importantly I'm going to find myself. Travel is a man's best teacher, and I am convinced that travel has less to do with where you go and more to do with why you go. So I am going to discover the beauty of this country, but also to rediscover the diversity that first empowered this "American experiment." I am going to meet new people, see new places, and attempt to look at things from new perspectives. I am going to get away from the people and places I know--to be alone. I am going to learn more about myself; maybe even to find pieces of myself that I left in places that I have not yet been. I'm going because I can't stay still.

So here I come America, your estranged son. I'm coming with an open mind, and I can only hope you meet me with open arms...