Home Town Pride

Rodolfo found this article about the culture of the Midwest and it got me thinking!

It's incredible how patriotic and sentimental I've become about being both American and Midwestern!
No, I'm not planning to vote for the host of a show on the top floor of a certain tower in New York....

After many, many years of participating in Anti War protests and looking at front yards of red, white and blue, I would see my flag on the back of someone's pick up truck and want to hit that truck out of the incredible anger I felt towards the self centered, elitist, chauvinistic ass holery of ...American truck drivers with bumper sticker patriotism....in other words...my flag had been kidnapped by people who apparently like to drink tea....the symbol of my country, the meaning of what I thought my country represented had changed into something ugly and foul and I didn't want it to represent me anymore.

Until last year, when I took it back.

Every single person who makes the decision to step outside of their borders of both their country and comfort zones becomes an ambassador to how the rest of the world sees America.  This helped me see it differently as well!

The moment you speak the words to a stranger in a foreign land "I'm from such and such" you represent an entire people from an entire country/culture whether you like it or not!

I found myself walking straighter, speaking clearer, being nicer, trying harder in moments I really didn't want to.  When people were staring at me and perhaps even hating me for no reason other then where I was from - words written on a passport - every move I made had an impact on how people viewed not only me, but also my country and I knew it.  Not just for the reactions I received from locals, but also from other tourists/backpackers and myself!

"You're the first  - smart, interesting, open minded, funny, caring, giving etc - American I've ever met!"

But it's not just how my friends from other countries now view America....like there's reason not to blow it up...they met someone real....it's a real place now to them...it's not just murdered prostitutes in alley ways and fat people watching t.v...their are people in the States just like them!  I know I've changed how I view other countries, based on my own experiences with people who live in them....and for all of the bad in the States and every other country, it is important to remember that there is just as much good if not more!  Although, I have to admit, the opportunities I've had simply because of what country I'm from are flabbergasting!

Now, let's get local.....

I've never had so much pride in being American.  Minnesotan.  From the East side of St. Paul...the slightly more dodgy end.

The further and longer I've lived away from home, the more connected I feel to the little traditional "US, Midwest, Minnesota" culture I've left behind and feel really proud of it!

Just this past week I met for a beer with a fellow Minnesotan and it was funny the things we both missed, which were for the most part, purely Minnesotan (Northern people who know how to drive in snow) traditions!  Things like walking as an 'activity', baking, folk music, being cold and liking it - aka - shoveling, cooking with heavy black cast iron pots, shopping at savers...I found myself speaking with a little bit of a Minnesota twang and an urge to make up a casserole and bake cookies!   It felt good to know that these things aren't simply my own personal eccentricities....it's how I was brought up and a part of who I am!

After growing up believing I was the only kid on the block without an interesting "ethnic heritage" to impress the other kids with...that I came from a country and origin without a particularly fascinating story to it....for a region that's blamed for 'talking like news anchors' I considered mid western life to be like our food, bland and boring...but now that I'm an adult....I like bland and boring!  What's wrong with that?   Now, I see my heritage as a solid base to build upon....think about it!  Potatoes can take on any flavor!  But what do you do without the potato?!?

Yesterday I made Thai style summer rolls, Rodolfo made Chinese style sesame chicken kebabs and for dessert his Aunt taught me how to make a nut cake with a special manjar frosting from a family recipe....a giant mess of cultural traditions mashed up together!  All of that 'ethnic heritage' I felt I couldn't take part in?  That's exactly the coolest part of what my heritage has become!!  An openness to trying and learning new things!  Feeling inspired to learn about all the parts and people of the world while also carrying on my simple mid west loves for fleece jackets and cozy blankies...warm cocoa on cold nights and lemonade on the hot ones...being open to other cultures IS my culture!  That's America!

As much as I love my little neck of the Northwoods (my dads favorite Penzey's spice) I also now have a great pride in sharing that mid western simple yet savory kindness, politeness and sense of daily purpose with the rest of the world and incorporating all the brilliant spicy parts of life I learn there into who I am as well....

That's why I love St. Paul, Minnesota, the Mid West, the USA and all my friends and family in it!
You can't put all that on a bumper sticker.