On this Guy Fawks Day I am in Culture Shock, I want my Motherland.
As I stood solemnly by our bonfire, and watched fireworks above a burning effigy of Parent. I was in culture shock, it was the 4th of July, but it wasn’t. As some of you know I have a mixed feeling about the 4th but tonight none of that was important. All I could think about was home. I said allowed, in distant wonder, "man, it looks like when the British burnt the first White House," before I realized it was not a particularly tactful thing to say surrounded by the attacker’s ancestors. As the bombs burst in air I thought about my American brothers and sisters in Iraq, under bombardment. And as the effigy burnt down the skeletal leavings reaching up like the remains of the World Trade Center quiet hidden tears came. Basic raw patriotism bubbled up in me.
I could go off on a rant about the threat of China and the ineffectiveness of the EU and the UN, but I’m not sure how genuine that would be. Long short its been a night of emotions.
Good night.
2 comments:
I just figure the British are sort of backwards. I could understand celebrating the failure of a group of people to bring down the gov't, but to celebrate the buy who literally tried to blow the gov't up? That's a little wierd!
:)
i know how you feel. and i just erased this thing about the riots in france and my satisfaction that the french are having to deal with the realities of pluralism. anyway, i felt pretty similarly while i was in turkey... oddly patriotic! everynight jim leherer posts the pictures of dead servicemen at the end of the program in silence. i force myself to watch, meditate and pray afterwards. the most intimate/important relationships are the most complicated as a result of the complexities of our evolved selves and government. ambiguity is a good thing... right?
--jessie
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