There are many many poems about loving America, about the Fourth of July, about watermelon and corn-on-the-cob and fireworks. There are also plenty of poems about the American Dream -- both from the point of view of those living it and those whom it has failed. I wanted to find a poem today about my personal dilemma: how to reconcile loving America (which I do) with not-so-much loving all the things Americans (including American governments and American people) do.
The poem I'm sharing today is called "Learning to Love America," by SHIRLEY GEOK-LIN LIM, a Malaysian American poet. The poem is about learning to love a country you are not born into, and how that happens. Ms. Lim writes, "to have a son is to have a country," and I hope that will resonate with many of my neighbors who weren't born in California or the U.S., but whose children were. I have a son, born in California, and I must confess, it's both easier and harder to love this country when you have to explain U.S. history and current events to your own child.
I think any American today, who's reading the news, listening to the radio, watching TV, might find a reason to have a complex love/hate relationship with this country. I love my freedom and opportunities, I love California, I honor my country; but I'm also pretty sure that the American Way is not really the best way all the time. And I can't agree America is "greatest" country in the world. Not because it's America, but because everywhere is the greatest for someone. Every country is someone's home. Every language is someone's mother tongue. Every son is a country to somebody.
Today I plan to eat home-made BBQ and home-grown salad, watch movies, hang out in air-conditioned suburbia and laugh with my friends. I'm grateful for what happened in 1776, and honor the men and women who lived then and whose vision we are living a pretty outrageous version of today. I'm glad I don't have to carry a musket around or use the latrine behind the house.
We who are given freedom must practice it every day. Keep a free mind and respect your free body and the free minds and bodies of those in all your neighborhoods -- big and small.
"Learning to Love America" describes freedom as living in California and eating fresh artichokes. What does freedom look like to you?
You can read the entire poem here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175888
Happy Fourth of July!!!
