Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Coming to a Computer Screen Near You from Salt Lake City, UT

     If you want to see America, drive it (I’ll accept train, although I don’t know if I’d recommend that). Welcome to Meg on the Road…




     It bugs me when people say "I've been to America" and when I ask where their reply is Los Angeles or New York City. No, you haven’t been to America, you have been to a huge ass city that happens to be located in America. You have been one of the two places in the USA that call themselves the center of the universe, and if it weren’t for their economic contribution, most of the rest of us couldn’t care if they fell off the face of the Earth. Now before I get all of you LA or NYC loving haters out there whining to me, I don’t want to hear it, I lived in LA for 12 years. I can’t stand the place.

     If you are one of those America = NYC kind of folk at least admit it’s like you went to the amusement park and you didn’t ride the roller coaster, or you drove on the Autobahn…in a golf cart. Let’s face it, America has a bad rep these days (not without valid points) and I’m sick of it. I’m sick of apologizing for my socially challenged government; an ignorant population; and a forcing of corporate values, products, and way of life onto a foreign population. Many people say, well then don’t, I say, that would make me just as ignorant as the backwoods fools who decide it’s a good idea to take a geography quiz out loud and post it on YouTube. Yes we are dumb, fat, and happy (or, more likely, a combination of the first two) but things are changing. Yes we may be a bit loud and boisterous, but there is no way you can put a population like the US in one single category.

     Ah, yet again, I digress, but the real meaning behind all of this ranting and rambling is that although I may not be socially ‘proud’ to be an American (as our country has GREATLY differentiated from the beautiful values it was founded on) I am proud of my country. It is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I drove for 8 hours today through Colorado and Utah. This is a drive I make every year, sometimes twice a year. Yes, it can be painstakingly boring. The entire trip back to my parents house takes 16 hours in total…if the weather is nice (which this time it is it’s best).  Needless to say, this isn’t my first time around the block. I’ve driven…well quite a bit when it comes to US travel and I can’t think of a better way to see a country with such variety.

    It’s really about the spaces in between. In the west, there are significantly more open spaces and some of the toughest terrain the USA has to offer. With toughness comes magnificent scale. One can’t help but wonder what it must have been like for those traveling by cart and oxen to lay eyes upon geographical wonders of the western United States and it is that sense of awe and wonder that in my mind makes America…well…America. You can say all you want about today’s people and government, but nothing can quite capture the physicality of such a place.

     Don’t take my word for it; drive it. I had a whole crazy spiel I wanted to get into about the CF that I like to call driving through Utah, but I’m freaking beat and I have a long day tomorrow. Maybe some other time.

So long from the road,

-M

No comments:

Post a Comment