MAGA (Make America Great Again)

 

Since traveling the last five months, I’ve been asked well over 100 times in conversations where we are from. In an attempt to sound casual, my first response has always been “we’re from the States.” No less than 95% of the faces of the questioners has yielded a dumbfounded look, which has required me to clarify with “the United States.” This, in the vast majority of responses, does nothing to better the situation. At which point, I either elaborate further and state “the United States of America” or just simply “America” and see the lights go on and the gears finally churning in the mind of the person who asked the question. I realize a handful of other countries technically have “states,” but none of them refer to themselves as the United States.

Regardless of where we’ve traveled (29 countries thus far), I’ve consistently needed to use “America” as my awkward response to this question. Perhaps my Peace Corps experience allowed me to understand early on that Honduras was also a nation of America, or Central America specifically, and Sarah reported the incredulous response Ecuadorians have if someone from the U.S. suggests they are “American.” I’m not looking to correct anyone or preach, but America, or Americas, are defined as the entire land mass that spans from the Nunavut Territory of Canada to Cape Froward in Chile. Within this mass, there is South America, Central America, and North America. Canada, Mexico, and the United States make up the region of North America. I know many people know this already, but referring to the United States as America still seems pretty weird to me…especially in light of the recent use of the slogan, “Make America Great Again!”

There have been several articles and blogs commenting on the “Great Again” portion of the slogan with some folks asking how it was great in the first place and others demonstrating that it’s always been great. I’m a bit more perplexed about the “America” aspect of the slogan. If we agree that America is really made up of a total of 55 countries, then I think our current President is facing a bit of a quandary in his mission of “Making America Great Again.” If Mexico (and presumably the 52 other countries south of it) require a wall, shouldn’t we also maybe (tongue in cheek) consider walling off pesky states like California or the annoying urban sanctuary cities? Conversely, wouldn’t people from the other 54 countries of the Americas also be considered American by this definition? Would deportation of undocumented people from those 54 other American countries still be considered deportation?

Why is it that we and so many people from around the world use “America” to describe the United States? I believe it’s probably because Hollywood dominates the majority of the world’s entertainment. They’ve somehow reinforced the imperial notion that the great U.S. of A is the same as “America” or “the Americas” (the bulk of the western hemisphere or half of the world, depending on how one looks at it). I’d like to think this was unintentional, but when leaders of our country refer to the United States as “America,” I think we not only do a disservice to 54 other countries of the Americas, but also to the United States. It’s important to note here that both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had used the term “Make America Great Again” before the current President.

Another plausible reason we refer ourselves as Americans is because we haven’t been able to come up with a term for ourselves. I’ve heard “Gringos,” “Imperialists,” “Yankees,” and “Infidels” used to define people from the United States, but it sure seems like we could have come up with something on our own better than “Americans.” Seems lame and lazy on our part. Perhaps we could just refer to ourselves as “Greats” and kill two birds with one stone. “Hi, I’m John Smith and I’m GREAT.”

I’m making light of this slogan in part because I find it an incredibly ignorant on many levels. Since traveling, I realize we of the good ol’ U.S of A have a lot of good things going for us despite our many flaws. Without a doubt, we should be striving to make the U.S. of A better on race discrimination, economic equity, a stronger economy, education, housing, less dependent on fossil fuels, ensuring everyone has a chance to achieve the United States of American dream, etc. We’ve never been GREAT before on all of these things. We’ve been good and may have been #1 at some of these things at one point in time in history, but not all of them all of the time.

Not only do I feel we are dismissive of the other 54 countries in the Americas by referring to the United States of America as “America,” but also think that we are unintentionally dismissing many of our accomplishments by not taking pride in what it took to become the United States. It took a lot to create this nation, and in many ways (especially in light of Brexit), it takes much more to maintain it. I would think that our current President would have monopolized on this notion in light of his nationalistic and isolationistic vision by focusing more on the United States part of the country vs. the America part of his campaign.

I would like to think that dissecting MAGA in light of changes in the United States of America and perceptions that that world has of us is timely. Traveling is providing me a new perspective and I love the opportunity to observe new things, from different angles, and question how we got here.

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/what-does-american-actually-mean/276999/

 

Planning Ahead

In reference to Jeff’s last post about the luxury of thinking about tomorrow, I have been doing lots of thinking about my own future. The whole idea of this world tour was to break away from a twenty-year routine that was taking its toll on our relationships, health and sanity. Extensive travel would give us the opportunity to reflect and hopefully provide some insight as to what our next steps in life would be. Being away from our normally grueling lives would give us the headspace we would need to come home and create a more balanced existence for ourselves.

Four years ago we bought a piece of property I lovingly call, “The Farm.” It is a place an hour outside of the Twin Cities Metro area that once was the homestead of a Swedish Immigrant family who arrived in these rolling hills the late 1800s. Originally, the property was a 150-acre parcel with enough fields for hay, food crops and grazing. It sits above a heavily wooded ravine providing shelter for deer, wild turkey and all variety of woodland animals; the trees were there for the taking for lumber and heat. The Quist family built a big dairy barn, a granary, chicken coop, and dug a well for their home, a lovely three bedroom white lap-sided shelter for a growing family. They were successful farmers who, until 1986, lived and farmed the property.

In 1986, Joel and Dora Quist, descendants of the original Swedish homesteaders, could no longer manage to live here and so decided to sell. The fields were gobbled up by nearby conventional farmers who every year hope to add acreage for mechanized corn and soybean crops, and 15 acres, including the house, outbuildings, and wooded ravine was surveyed off to be included in the sale of the homestead property. As Joel and Dora were very tidy farmers, the property sold quickly to a young couple looking for just enough land to have horses. That young couple raised a daughter on this property, had some horses and eventually, moved on. That’s when we stumbled on this little slice of heaven.

By 2013 when we bought the farm, it was in a shambles needing some TLC to bring it back to life, but that’s how Jeff and I like our properties. By the time we bought this place, we had already renovated three of our own homes that others told us they would consider “tear downs!” We have found that we like junky properties with good bones because they sell cheap and we can completely gut them without feeling like we are wasting anyone else’s hard work and bad taste. We gut and rebuild them exactly the way we want. We’re big on maintaining the home’s historical integrity, so tend towards simple, neutral and classic. Our formula seems to work as selling each of our previous properties has never taken more than a few days.

I should note here, for those of you who don’t know us, these extensive home renovation projects took place while also holding down regular full-time jobs and raising our son, Max. People call us ambitious. In retrospect, I now see that teaching never gave me enough opportunity to enjoy the creative, hands-on results of projects like this. I think renovation and rehab are my drugs of choice – I get such enormous satisfaction and joy from the finished product. I actually HATE all the mess and physical pain of renovation, but when it is done and clean and beautiful…there is nothing like it! The check received at the closing table is pretty nice, too!

However, the farm was a property we knew we would keep. This one would be our country home – a place to escape from the rigors of city life and provide a creative outlet. This place would give years of building projects – a new barn, sugar shack for maple syruping, a summer kitchen in the granary, an outdoor pizza oven, a guesthouse or two and gardens everywhere. We began renovations in the house – removing all the old carpeting, rustic pine woodwork, and broken windows and doors. We added a new kitchen using all recycled cabinets from other old properties and painted everything in a simple farmhouse style. About a week into working on this property, I found myself looking out the windows over the rolling hills and valleys and felt a deep sense of peace. Another week later I was smitten and a trip back to the Cities felt burdensome. Each moment in the city that I was away from the farm I felt a pull. That feeling of only wanting to be at the farm grew and grew and grew.

I began to fantasize about starting a farm business so I could stay permanently at the farm. The second summer we were here I grew a gigantic garden with enough veg to feed fifty families, I began to explore options for starting a CSA. Friends came to visit and I served them “Farm Lunch” from the bounty of the garden, we had big parties on the weekends and small gatherings during the week. Jeff invited his bike crew out for some 80-mile fast rides around Lake Pepin and I fed them when they returned. I found that this place is not only healing for me but healing for others. Lots of people love our farm and I love hosting them.

Before leaving for our world tour, I fretted about what to do with the farmhouse – my pride and joy. I reluctantly decided to rent it to friends and family for a nominal fee – just charging enough money to keep the bills paid on the place while we’re away. I built a website to promote it and reservations started pouring in. Nearly every weekend since we left, the farm has had visitors, many of whom have reported falling in love with it just like I have! Our farm neighbor down the road says he thinks I’ve found my calling as the owner of a farm stay rental!

I have known since shortly after buying this property that I want to live on the farm permanently and turn it into some sort of business. I want to host guests either as day visitors who come to learn about permaculture gardens, buy vegetables or eat lunch. I want to provide guesthouses for those needing to get away from the city. I want to share this space with others because when somebody says, “This place is so beautiful! Thank you for sharing it with us!” I feel such enormous satisfaction and pride – I feel like I have a purpose in life.

Every day while traveling, my mind goes to the farm. That pull that I felt when returning to Minneapolis from the farm only increased while on our world tour. Every guest house we stay in gets compared to the farm, all the farms we saw in Europe gave me ideas for mine, I studied tree planting and pruning, orchards and vineyards all with the idea to bring what I was learning home. And, when travel was boring or hard, all I wanted was to return to my farm.

Yes, travel is hard and I suffer the first-world problem of travel being boring. Travel involves enormous amounts of decision-making – the kind of decision-making that allows no time to ponder. Do I go right or left…I need to know now! To avoid the stress of all the instant decisions needed, planning time is required before venturing out, so reading reviews, articles and maps should be considered fun. It turns out, I don’t much care to put myself in the position where I have to make on-the-spot decisions that affect others and I HATE reading about travel! When planning where to go on the next leg of our trip I would find myself veering back into the internet land of farms, permaculture gardening and guesthouses. Traveling the world has made me realize more clearly that I just don’t like traveling all that much. Jeff calls me a homebody – a label perfectly suited to me. I love my home, I love the life I am creating there and I want to go back.

So, traveling indeed has given me perspective and insight, but not about next steps when I return to the States. Instead, traveling made me realize that I am really not happy anywhere other than at “The Farm.” I knew that before leaving, but it is clear to me now that I need to be on the farm because all I want to do is develop my business. Traveling is taking me away from moving in that direction. I realized that I left behind an unfinished project that has a very strong pull. Travel is lovely for someone needing to slow down, but for me, my mind is churning – full of ideas and planning next steps for the farm. Being away from my project, and in the stressful, slow world of travel is stopping dead a creative flow that needs an outlet.

Last summer I put in half a garden because we were leaving in September so I didn’t plant many late season veggies. All summer I was sad because I had half a garden. This year, I would also have half a garden as the trip wouldn’t bring us home until May meaning I wouldn’t have been able to start my own seeds for tomatoes, peppers and all the flowers I love to start early. If you are well-versed in the use of grammar and tenses, you likely know what I am leading up to – I just can’t be away from the farm for another minute! I can’t bear that Spring is right around the corner and I won’t be able to start seeds and get garden plans underway. Projects at the farm are pulling me away from any desire to travel the world, so I have decided to come home. Max and Jeff are quite content with their adventures – hiking, rafting, exploring and surfing, but this homebody needs to be done. Five months on the road was enough to feel well-rested and clarified!

For those of you with farm reservations, don’t worry. I will continue to rent the farmhouse on the weekends through Jeff and Max’s return in May. Your staying at the farm gives me the opportunity to catch up with friends and family. I guess in a way, I will complete my world tour in the U.S.

Travel over a long period of time is very enlightening, but I am glad to be heading home.

 

The Luxury of Thinking About Tomorrow

One of my goals for this trip was to do a better job of “living in the moment”. Prior to leaving, I was increasingly unable to enjoy what I was doing because I tended to obsess about what needed to be done at work, home, and for others. Spending time in Indonesia has shown me that there are potential pitfalls to the other end of that “living in the moment” continuum. While there, I saw numerous examples of Indonesian’s living their lives like they had no tomorrow.

We’ve now been in SE Asia for two months and have seen some crazy examples of moto-scooter/bike driving, but nothing compared to the stuff we saw while in Indonesia. In addition to the hundreds of crazy passes at ridiculous speeds on hairpin roads, there were sometimes up to 6 people riding on one little scooter and guys carrying stacks of 2×4’s with one arm while driving with the other at over 60 mph. My favorite scenes were the guys carrying bamboo stalks (sometimes just one, but often times multiple) measuring lengths of over 30 feet while driving the scooter, resembling a modern day jousting scene with nature’s lance. I never saw an accident, but did see many close calls and saw many a people (mostly foreigners) with severe road rash injuries hobbling around town. Lastly, I observed hundreds of abandoned flip flops (the most commonly used foot covering in Indonesia) along the roads. It made me wonder if these were somehow used like roadside memorials to commemorate where accidents and/or deaths occurred.

So all of this has got me thinking about the luxury of being able to think about tomorrow. My social and economic justice colleagues are going to give me a big “duh” on this post, but Indonesia has really brought home to me how difficult it is for people living in poverty to think beyond the day they are currently living. Income, but more importantly “access” to capital (and debt) provide the ability to think and plan for the future. With that ability to think about tomorrow, one can begin to align steps that are going to improve their and their offspring’s opportunities down the road. It’s an incredibly simplistic fundamental of the world, but its impact is profound.

I broke a surfboard while in Indonesia. I did, but in my defense… I really didn’t. Here’s what happened: Max and I had been surfing at a beginner beach on beginner surfboards. For those who don’t know, there are the cool, balsa wood – composite little boards that good surfers are able to use and then there are the larger, primarily foam poly-wrapped boards that are given to beginners to use. Over the course of a day, I had graduated from a larger foam board to a smaller foam board and headed out to the surf. In no more than 5 minutes, I began to paddle for a wave when the front third of the board snapped back whacking me in the face. I walked it in and brought the issue to the attention of the board rental proprietor. The owner exchanged the board for me, but not before mumbling something about it costing more than 3.5 million Rupiahs (about $300) to replace it. I didn’t say anything as I assumed it was something he saw regularly and returned out to the water with the replaced board. Not before getting 100 meters out did I realize that the replaced board had some “play” in the front section and sure enough, the foam under the poly wrap was broken. It then occurred to me that the first board must have had the same issue and I hadn’t noticed when I took it out. Essentially I had officially broken a board that was already 95% broken before I used it.

I returned the second board and shared my analysis as to how the first board had broken. The owner saw that I was trying to weasel out of any accountability for the broken board and I grasped that he fully intended for me to cover the cost of purchasing a new board. The arguing began. I acknowledged that I was indeed the “final straw” that broke the camel’s back, but shouldn’t have to pay for a brand new board. The arguing continued….for well over an hour. Against what I felt was fair, I agreed to pay 1 million Rupiahs (about $80) and would agree to continue to rent from this guy while we were in Indonesia. He wouldn’t accept anything less than 3 million Rupiahs. Throughout the arguing, I had hinted that perhaps we should just let the local authorities iron it out….of course because I thought I was in the right….and travel-centric and/or euro-centric justice (privilege) would prevail. They quickly had shown concern with this 3^rd party arbitrator approach so I thought I held the ace in my pocket.

The arguing and negotiating had run its course. We had both drawn lines in the sand (we actually did…to illustrate how far we were from an agreed settlement line) and we were at a standstill. I craftily thought it was my time to use my ace and to push for what I thought was going to be my win move in the negotiation. I gathered my stuff, started walking, and stated that we should just go down the road to the Indonesian equivalent of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry cop shop. To my surprise, they called my bluff and before I knew what happened we all headed for our scooters.

We arrived at the police station and the station’s Barney Fife heard both sides of the argument (well, he heard theirs as they had the local language to their benefit) and “ruled” that I needed to fork over 2 million Rupiahs. Like many spiteful Americans who feels they’ve been wronged, I told the proprietor that I was going to make sure to post my unfair treatment via negative post(s) online. I felt like I had lost. C’est la vie.

After I cooled off and realized there are clearly far more important things to fret about in life, I began to analyze the whole incident. Here’s the deal….the need for the money was as or even more important than the already broken board. Through the arguing, I realized the proprietor just needed cash. His rationale for me paying 3 million Rupiah was because it was their down season, he had people to pay, and that it wasn’t a lot of money for someone from the United States. He never intended to use the money I would pay him to go out and replace the board that was broken. He needed to take an immediate short-term financial gain over the long-term benefit of retaining me as a customer, risk of bad business reviews, and inability to reinvest in his business. I get it and think we’ve all had to make short-term, short-sighted decisions when immediate cash was the driver, but also think that most of us look back on those moments knowing we wish we could have done it differently.

After this little episode, I began to use a more critical eye to why stuff (infrastructure, people, business decisions, etc.) was the way it was in Indonesia and the reasons became pretty clear when I used this access to capital/debt lens. I also became much more accepting (a better team player) of the role tourists and foreigners served in this symbiotic game that needs to play out daily in Indonesia. There seemed to be a local and a tourist price for most things. Locals expect and need foreigners to step up and pay significantly more than the cost of producing a good or service. This supports the local residents in lieu of having social support, infrastructure investments, and other income for a community. Essentially, it feels like the lack of a public policy has forced the hands of the local residents to go it alone using any and every tool at their disposal to get by on a daily basis.

While traveling through Europe, I got a much better appreciation of the depth of their cultures and communities. Most countries in Europe have an incredibly long memory and rich history. Things there didn’t happen overnight and change is measured in generations and seemed very purposeful. I felt Europeans took the long view on just about everything: Energy, infrastructure, housing, employment, family, and the environment. They seemed to always be thinking about generations to come.

The United States is a neophyte in comparison. In the United States, we have a short history and unfortunately also take a much shorter view of the future. We build structures with a life expectancy of 20 years, tend to upgrade to new cars frequently, and seem to be prone to make decisions that will yield immediate short-term rewards even if it is detrimental in the long-term. Indonesia is even younger country than the United States. While Indonesia began to push for its independence from the Dutch in the early 1900’s, it wasn’t until after World War II that it actual became its own nation. Indonesians have lived there for a long time, but it’s really been a short period of time that they’ve been able to call their own shots. I believe this phenomenon also adds to the short-term, immediate benefit thinking held by the country and its people.

I don’t think we need to follow this development formula and it can be done better. We just spent a couple days in Singapore and it feels like even though they are a very young city-nation, they have been purposeful about setting policies and priorities with a long-term vision for their country and people (hoping to write a future blog on their interesting housing policies).

One of the areas where this short-term thinking is going to screw the Indonesia and its people is in land and business ownership. While we were only there for three weeks, it became quickly evident that development is happening quickly. The island of Bali is already developed and there were significant development pressures playing out on the island of Lombak. Prices are still relatively inexpensive and foreign investment is moving in quickly to develop and start businesses. The local residents are being left behind due to seeing (and/or acting on) the bigger picture and the necessity to focus on daily needs. I heard many stories of locals who passed up opportunities to purchase real estate (residential, commercial, land) and now are being displaced. Across the world, we see displacement playing out, but I wholeheartedly believe that part of the displacement issue is due to the inability for low-wealth people and nations to have the luxury to think beyond many of the immediate needs of tomorrow. I’m not necessarily a big government advocate, but am in support of policies that place a high priority on the impact for ALL people for future generations. I struggle with having respect for government, business, or individuals who put their immediate needs above the future benefit…especially when they have the luxury of thinking otherwise.

It’s been fascinating to think about this long-term vs. short-term mentality as new policy and funding priority proclamations are made almost daily stateside. Each one leaves me asking myself what is the end-game and how does this benefit the U.S. and its’ citizens today, but more importantly what it means for tomorrow the distant future. Over recent years, I think we have missed many opportunities to be more proactive on forward-thinking education, housing, and social investments and policies. It does feel like we were starting to round the corner on beginning to think long-term about energy and the environment, but those policies and investments are quickly being turned back to short-term thinking. Whether it Indonesia, the United States, or any situation, we tend to all lose out long-term when short-sighted decisions are made for the sake of an immediate win.