This blog is quite behind schedule, but I was going through all the unpublished drafts in my queue of blogs and found this one from a couple weeks ago. Just thought I'd share...Since my arrival in the States, my feelings toward the USA have been somewhat conflicted. I guess the word I'm looking for is disenchanted. After 5 months of being around people who isolated and exaggerated every flaw and negative stereotype of Americans at every chance, it rubbed off on me. I came home to find that perhaps the criticism was more true than I remembered.
Celebrating the fourth of July was therefore not something I was looking forward to with any exceptional passion, but it ended up being the best thing for me. I spent the day in Colorado with my family and the Kolb family, picnicking on a grass field with thousands of other Americans, most dressed head to toe in red, white & blue, listening to orchestras play America the Beautiful and shoot off cannons during the 1812 Overture, and watching skydivers and fireworks fill the sky.
There was something about lying on the grass, watching fireworks synchronized to the song 'I'm Already There' (complete with recorded messages to loved ones overseas) and crying along with thousands of other people that just brought me peace with this country like nothing else has been able to. And I realized, say what you will, this is America too. Sure, we have flaws, plenty, but there is much to love about this country too.
Enjoy some photos I took that day... some snapshots of America.
Fourth of July picnic
Oh Uncle Sam
Couldn't resist this picture... and yes that is a cannon on the table.
Colorado.
2 comments:
I'm not as interested in the cannon on the table as I am the gentleman striking a John Wayne pose, who seems to be also carrying a HUGE axe. Very nice!
Isn't it silly that as hard as you might try to dislike our country...if you're living in it you can't help but love it ever so slightly and want to blow junk up one day every year?
Your pictures look great!
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