travel, hooray

this is a country of immigrants (the u.s.). we all know this. we also know that the notion of mobility hs always been of supreme importance to americans. for example, the idea that you can change your socio-economic class is squarely at the heart of the idea americans have of themselves. of course, many people have not succeeded in this manner, but nonetheless, words like opportunity, freedom, and liberty resound in our minds. for better or for worse.

to come to this country as an imigrant - to make a choice to come here and be able to shed your former identity in favor of a newer model is something that is well entrenched in the mythology of america. even black people, who did not immigrate like others, have reinvented themselves on american soil from who they were before arriving here.

but what to do with those of us who are born in america? in what way are we americans? surely we have been fed the same propoganda about ourselves as having great opportunities to reinvent ourselves. surely the desire to do something different and supposedly better than the previous generation exists within us. however, as we move around the country seeking our opportunity, seeking a defunct frontier, often times this american dream seems unattainable.

the aspect we are missing, it seems, is the aspect of being an immigrant. moving from manhattan to brooklyn doesnt provide the same molted feeling that moving to another country does.

if the world learns nothing else positive from america, it will have this: interesting looking people. with all the cultural mixing that has gone on in america throughout the years, it stands to resaon that once the empire falls and the world becomes a bit more sedantary than it is now, that a few centuries or millenia later - after enough time has passed for people to intermarry and like it, america should have a couple hundred million interesting looking people on its hands. it will be like a huge puerto rico with more ingredients.

ive always considered myself a traveler. even though im leaving tomorrow and i havent traveled as a traveler (as opposed to traveling as a vacationer) for 3 years, a huge part of my self-image has been that of a traveler. just the way it is. it might be that people like me - the product of progressive american mixing - might find ourselves on foreign soil at the moment the empire falls. in this case, it is our job as travelers - as the semi-nomadic-potentially-immigrant-ish people that we are, to spread the result of the american dream throughout the world. sure, the world comes to america, mashes itself together as in a food processor (yes yes i know, food metaphors about americans are played out, probably), and will spit out the results like the lid was removed.