I spent August in New England, in a few of my favourite locations, the Maine coast and the Inexperienced Mountains of Vermont. These two locations are solely a two-and-a-half hour’s drive aside, however they’re completely different worlds. There’s the rocky coast of Maine with the salty, contemporary air sweeping off the huge Atlantic to the east. And to the west, simply throughout the slender state of New Hampshire, are the richly forested mountains and glowing crystalline rivers of Vermont. Virtually all the pieces is completely different about these two locations.
On a map of America the area between them appears to be virtually insignificant. It’s tiny in comparison with the huge dimensions of a rustic that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific. That demonstrates one thing. If there’s that a lot variation between these two locations, what are we with all the United States?
From York, Maine, to Brattleboro, Vermont, is 134 miles. With right this moment’s automobiles that may transfer at greater than a mile a minute, it takes solely a small a part of the day to go from one to the opposite.
However in between these two spots on the map is a cornucopia of variation. There are farmlands, pastures, horse ranches, forests, mountains and rivers, cities and villages with historic church buildings and buildings that talk of ages previous.
Simply attempt to extrapolate that diploma of variation unfold throughout the entire width and depth of this nation that stretches 2800 miles throughout and 1600 miles north to south. I undergo you, that not solely is America lovely, because the tune says, but it surely’s virtually inconceivably huge and numerous in each manner.
There aren’t any enough superlatives to explain what America is. Our perceptions are distorted by what we see on maps. From childhood we’re used to seeing that area representing one nation. However the scale is way more than our minds can comprehend. It’s virtually as massive as all of Europe. And the extra I uncover of the USA, the extra I admire the big range in America.
Mentally we are able to group issues collectively as one factor. That doesn’t make them one factor. Maine and Vermont are grouped with a number of different states as “New England.” However there’s as a lot range throughout that complete area as there was in that little strip throughout the state of New Hampshire.
I’m from the Midwest, however I nonetheless are inclined to fall into the error of pondering of it as a homogeneous mass. It’s something however. It’s a mosaic of numerous landscapes, cities, cities and cultures. The range of America is underestimated as a result of it’s so huge. After we don’t know one thing, it seems to us as a clean.
It’s richly numerous in each facet you may title. Culturally it’s fed by folks from everywhere in the world who’ve converged right here to turn into a part of the American Dream. When so many worldwide cultures converge in a single place, the cross-fertilization of tradition spawns an infinite number of new cultural types and improvements. We are able to see that within the many artforms, types and sports activities which have sprung forth from the USA, reminiscent of blues, jazz and rock and roll, or baseball and American soccer, barbecue, cheeseburgers, apple pie, the quick story, and an inventory that’s infinite.
Individuals generally dismiss the historical past of the USA as being solely a pair hundred years lengthy, whereas in Europe, cities might be traced again 1000’s of years. However that’s an error.
It’s 400 years since colonists got here to America. That has created an extended and sophisticated historical past. And past that could be a historical past of 1000’s of years of the native American cultures that had been right here earlier than the arrival of the colonists. That’s one thing about which little is understood, however the pre-Columbian historical past of America is an interesting topic to discover.
The individuals who have come from Europe, Asia, Africa or Latin America introduced their cultures and histories with them from in all places they’ve come from. It’s all a part of American tradition. Despite the fact that we’re formally one nation, united by language and authorities, we’re many various nations, in a manner.
I’ve traveled to all of the continents of the world, and have beloved all of them. Nevertheless it took touring internationally for me to understand America as a lot as I do now. Irrespective of how a lot I journey overseas, America stays a shining place, with its personal distinctive pure and cultural magnificence.
I heard the tune “America the Lovely” sung so many instances once I was nonetheless in grade faculty I most likely turned numb to it by repetition earlier than I ever had any thought what it was saying. However now that I’ve seen a lot of America and far of the world, I feel the lyric does an admirable job of paying tribute to what I’ve stated is just too huge to be understandable. I might write pages and pages of prose and by no means come any nearer than that one lyric in making an attempt to precise the fantastic thing about America.
“Spacious skies” certainly! If in case you have been west of the Mississippi, you recognize what spacious skies are. “Purple mountain majesties”? Sure! There are the mountains of the Appalachian system on the japanese flank, however the Rockies are one thing else completely. They attain into the heavens with a magical thriller that’s impenetrable. I can get very verklempt once I hear these lyrics now.
Woody Guthrie did one other admirable tribute to the fantastic thing about America “from California to the New York island” in his tune “This Land is Your Land.” That tune says with the guts what can’t be put into phrases.
If we dwell in America, we might assume that we already understand it and need to simply hop abroad to see what is basically value seeing. However that too could be a tragic error.
Dwelling in a single spot on this nation doesn’t robotically provide you with data of the entire nation. It doesn’t even provide you with data of the following city over. And I’ve seen plenty of variation from city to city. In New York Metropolis, you may stroll one block and end up in a distinct world.
Whereas my ardour for worldwide journey is under no circumstances diminished, it has helped me to understand home journey greater than ever. I’ve traveled America greater than most individuals. However proper now I’m feeling a deficiency once I consider how a lot of it I’ve by no means seen.
I’ve traveled from coast to coast, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, and combed by means of a lot of these areas in between that don’t get a lot consideration individually. However there are complete states I’ve not been in, and large areas between the locations I’ve been.
Chances are you’ll journey cross nation from California to New York, and that’s a beautiful factor, however to then say you’ve seen the entire nation is a gross exaggeration. You could have drawn a line from one finish to a different.
It’s if you get down into all of the areas in between, to the facet, forwards and backwards and up and down that you simply start to know the nation. I consider you could possibly spend your complete life exploring and learning this nation, and you’ll nonetheless solely expertise a tiny a part of it.
It was stated that Franklin D. Roosevelt might title each county within the nation. However even when he couldn’t actually title all 3,244 counties, it reveals an intimacy with the land he developed from campaigning that few will ever match. I do know I’ll by no means see greater than a fraction of the nation, however there’s a lot of it that I’d but wish to see whereas I can.
So whereas I nonetheless have a burning want to journey internationally, journey in the USA is correct up there with journey wherever. Simply because I used to be fortunate sufficient to be born right here, I don’t need to take it without any consideration, not for one minute.
Your humble reporter,
A. Colin Treadwell