All American

Travelling around the world here and there, you mix with people from many countries. I am not speaking of those you meet for a short time on your travels through their borders, but the ones you travel with. These are the people you get to know rather intimately as you share the wiles of  ship or land journeying for weeks at a time. There are  social occasions on trips of this sort. Time and time again, we, in a group, and there is no better way to travel, are introduced as our country: Chinese, American, Russian, Canadian and so on. For some odd reason, we imply that those from a certain country are examples of the popular identity attributed to that place globally. For example, and pardon me for these foolish tags, they're not mine, a Scot is thrifty, a Canadian is nice, an American is loud, a Frenchman, romantic and an Italian, a natural opera singer, etc. Most of us understand that these labels are wholly ridiculous cartoon images but we hold them to be kind of factual even though we know they are perhaps only partly correct. In this cosmopolitan world there is no reason for these old-fashioned ideas of traits, but you get the point. For some reason, the term "American" that is given to those who are inhabitants of the United States, seems askew to me. Everyone from North, Central and South America, is "American". I stand by that statement. Often times,  when it comes my turn to tell where I am from, unpopularly, I say "I, too, am American, but my country is Canada". There are gasps. You would think I dropped a bowl of soup on the floor. The shocked looks around the space are daunting - well, to anyone but me. I have no truck with niceties or poses as you have sensed reading my blogs. The truth is the bare truth when it comes right down to it. Yes, we of the two continents of the Americas, are indeed Americans. Our countries are Peru or Mexico or Canada but we are Americans of the Americas. The best part is, that U.S. Americans never seem take offense at that statement. They are very open folk, and while they have may their secret opinions, they are quite generous about sharing Americania with all the rest of us. For one thing, it gives them a chance to talk about being a citizen of the United States of America. They can launch into how hard won it was and who the heros are and were, and how financially influential it is in the world. Okay, so  what do we call them? U.S.ers or United Statesites or USof Aers? I suppose long ago, it was shortened to "Americans" rather than United States of Americans for the sake of brevity and convenience of tongue. But occasionally we need to freshen up and shake out the truth.