Twilight
August 13th, 2006
I’ve never been particularly patriotic. In fact, patriotism scares me a little – I’ve always seen it like some kind of extreme religion, even though I know that’s just silly and painfully incorrect. I guess it always struck me that patriotism was unwavering love for the country we live in – love that requires that you don’t question what happens and you just shut up and sit back and be thankful, you stuffy little ingrate. I don’t suppose it helps that the pervasive stereotype of patriotism pushes the idea of driving a beat up truck with a rear window graphic of a confederate flag and a bumper sticker that says “Git ‘r done!” in an unironic fashion. Inhabitants of the truck are usually wearing head to toe camo and have a penchant for going squirrel hunting and yammering on and on about the time they done up and ran near over that there ‘gator in the hole on their way fishin’ near their grandmomma’s trailer.
And please don’t get me started on God and religion and all of that good stuff. I don’t have it in me to bring it up or argue it or debate it.
Before 9/11, I ran from people who had giant flags dangling from their windows and I fled in horror from women who thought it was a good idea to wear red, white and blue on ANY occasion, much less nearly every weekend. And I would have cringed at the idea that anyone would think it was a good idea to bake American-themed cupcakes for a baseball game. I guess times change, and I haven’t publicly stoned anyone for such behavior yet, and on occasion, I can understand it. But although 9/11 hit me just as hard as anyone else, I failed to jump on the patriotism train and I don’t own a single flag, nor have I donned anything red, white and blue. And it goes without saying that no cupcakes have ever been baked on my watch.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have moments where I am just flat-out bowled over at how wonderful our country is, even if it’s just by the beauty of the landscape alone. I haven’t been to as many places as I’d like to have been in the U.S. in my relatively short life, but each one of them has been vastly unique and breathtakingly beautiful. This weekend on Sanibel was no exception. The area where I live is a hotbed of development activity. Highrises and pre-fab developments are going up all over the place like giant ant farms, and there is so much friggin’ commerce everywhere that I swear there are going to be repurcussions from the amount of nail salons per capita. Someday the pervasive acrylic fumes are going to cause me to have a baby with a giant fin on its back and I’ll have no one to blame but myself and my compulsive desire for pretty toenails.
But ahh, Sanibel. Smart zoning and a plethora of wildlife refuges make it a lush oasis in the middle of this insanely busy, freakish land. And though our cottage was an overpriced, gritty-floored dog-friendly hovel, it was about 11 feet from the Gulf, and when you can smell the sea from your bed at night, does anything else really matter? We danced on the beach and ate at fabulous restaurants and I swam in the water until my whole body became a brined delicacy. I could hear the ocean swirling around my ears, and I thought: this is heaven. A pelican swooped down and flew level with the water so close to me that for one magic moment we were eye to eye and I laughed at the sandpipers doing their swift little dance as the blue foam caught their toes.
This is such a stark change from the rolling hills of Pennsylvania where I grew up in a land of dairy farms and green cornfields. And it’s a far cry from the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean as it hurtled along the edge of the breaking wall during a snowstorm in Massachusetts near my last apartment. And while it’s not dissimilar to the salt marshes of the low country region of South Carolina where I lived for a time, I’ve never seen anything quite as beautiful as the sun setting over the tall grasses on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. And all of this is wrapped up in one small section on the east coast of the United States, and there is more – more! – in the rest of the country, in the midwest, and the great plains and the west coast. There are mountains in Utah, and mesas in Arizona and towering cliffs in Oregon and snowcaps on the Rockies and goddamn, this whole place is just so fucking beautiful. And we get to choose where we live – where we go next, where we want to visit, what we want to see, and no one can stop us. And while I’m not particularly patriotic or religious, I can’t help but marvel at the wonder of it all. I can’t help but marvel at the incredibly disparate nature of each of our country’s four corners, and how lucky we are to get to live here, travel here and choose our own destiny. And I guess I’m just really thankful to whoever made that possible.
Oh splurt, I’ve just been pummeled back to reality by audible horror at the purchase of skim milk vs. 2 percent, and a certain small dog has to poop. Good thing, as I was starting to get obnoxiously earnest, and damn, it was annoying, wasn’t it?
*ELO. I am in a musical rut. I’ll be repeating myself for a while.
Entry Filed under: Nuttin'
11 Comments Add your own
1. Kathryn | August 14th, 2006 at 6:19 am
I love Sanibel! I noticed that you stayed at the Waterside Inn, we stayed there in March. The accommodations are low-rent, but I like the atmosphere.
I can’t wait to return. We’ll probably be back in November when the weather is nicer.
Glad you had a nice weekend!
2. Claire | August 14th, 2006 at 6:20 am
good thing you came back to reality, there at the end, i was starting to get a little depressed about not enjoying my little island to the fullest and that summer is almost over and look at all the time i’ve wasted!!
i hate that feeling.
i agree, whole-heartedly that there are many, lovely, wonderful places in our vast country. each one should be visited and enjoyed over our lifetimes to fully appreciate all there is out there. but i don’t know if that makes me want to feel patriotic. i mean, i might just as easily feel that way about cananda…
it’s hard to feel patriotic with the dominating right-wing culture in our country right now. There is so much to be angry about and so much that makes you cringe when you think about every other country in the world watching what a fucking mess we’re making, And that the guy on tv seems to be proud of the mess he’s making – and that doesn’t even have a grasp on the english language.
Urghh. Ok – i’m sorry. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with not feeling particularly patriotic right now. What is wonderful, is that you can leave politics behind and still love your country for its beauty, when you can’t necessarily love it for its foreign affairs policy.
It sounds like you had a lovely weekend.
3. Lawyerish | August 14th, 2006 at 6:28 am
Great. Now I’ve got “This Land is Your Land” going through my head.
It looks like you had a loverly weekend. There are so many damn beautiful places in this world, it’s true. And I have so much of the US left to explore — I’ve only flown over the Grand Canyon; I’ve never been to Southern California; I have yet to get to Hawaii or Alaska.
I get a little nervous when there’s too much flag-waving going on, too (and sometimes I wish I had been born Dutch or Danish); but I still find something stirring about quaints town of clapboard houses with American flags hanging from the eaves.
4. Heather B. | August 14th, 2006 at 7:07 am
And here I thought that I was the least patriotic person ever. I even hate fireworks on the 4th of July.
That said, much like you, I can’t help but contemplate where I want to visit next in this country, because there is just so freaking much to see. Hopefully I’ll find the time to explore it all.
5. jonniker | August 14th, 2006 at 7:14 am
Kathryn: Exactly! It was lovely and we didn’t want anything luxurious (though we could have done without the neverending grit everywhere), and it was absolutely perfect. The people are nice, too, which is helpful. Please tell me you ate at the Twilight Cafe.
Claire: Exactly – I guess I was marveling that while I was swimming that I was thinking how neat-o our country’s landscape is, and how lovely it is, and I was afraid of sounding all “I love the United States and all of its policies!” so I wrote an extremely long caveat that made no sense, but MAN, was I tired.
Ish: Ugh, the flag-waving and unflagging (heh) support. And Southern California is one of my favorite places in this entire world and it actually beats out some of my favorite European destinations. Laguna. Santa Barbara. Montecito. My God. It’s stunning. You must go.
Heather: I’m not a huge firework person. I don’t get it! I want to get it, but I don’t. Explosions! Pretty! Gone in a flash! Why?
6. GG | August 14th, 2006 at 9:43 am
OMG – don’t look now, but I think Jonna’s found something about Florida she LIKES!
The Devil called; she/he says it’s getting freakin’ cold down there.
I think the Waterside Inn is where I stayed when I was in the wedding down there (although the wedding itself was in Captiva). Ahhh, I want to swim in the Gulf, too.
I totally knwo what you mean about how many amazing places there are to go in this crazy country of ours. I’m not all that patriotic myself – but I must confess, I once appeared at a 4th of July party bearing a cake with strawberries & blueberries on top as the stars & stripes. Yup. I’m that dorky. Then again – I adore any sort of theme party.
7. Beth | August 14th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Agreed on the patriotism front: I hate when people insist that I love my country to the point of blindness, but oh, how the sight of the Rocky Mountains can make me cry every damned time.
8. Orange Peacock | August 14th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Delurking after an embarrassingly long period of stalking.
As Ronald Reagan said, “Where would this country be without this great land of ours?”
I swear, that’s the last time I’ll ever quote a Republican at you.
In any case (I’m not off to a good start, am I?), I think most of our liberal compadres are so caught up in our mockery of a government that it’s easy to forget how incredibly awesome this place is, sans people. I’ve only been to two states not in contact with the Atlantic, but I don’t think people are alive if they can’t appreciate things like the misty gloom of West Virginia mountains with massive bridges stretched over gorges and mines. I want to see EVERYTHING this country has to offer before I kick the bucket.
So rock on with your appreciative (didn’t say patriotic!) self.
9. Sarcomical | August 14th, 2006 at 11:33 am
i’ve always wanted to go to sanibel, ever since a college friend went there for break and raved about how gorgeous and quiet and relaxing it was.
jealous.
10. Bethany Coffey | August 14th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
I’m patriotic and conservative and very religious. But that’s whats great about this country, your ability to choose, to question and to express differing opinions. I think that a fear of religion and patriotic pride is so unnecessary and only escallated by the leftist media but I also relize that this argument is about as productive as trying to part the seas:) hehe
11. jonniker | August 14th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
GG: The cake is so damn cute, I could cry.
Beth: Yes! Yes! The Rockies! Holy crap!
OP: I saw you earlier re: the flesh! The FLESH! Which I’ve never eaten
Sarcomical: Come visit and I’ll take you there
BC: Ah, yes. That IS what makes our country great is the ability to have a complete difference of opinion and BOTH be right in our own ways, right?
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