After a considerable absence
one returns and finds many fundamental and drastic alterations not so much in
the physical landscape, but more on the people, their ideals and values
spanning many spectra. Not to suggest
that no perceptible changes were being made when I first left. But more because they are now so unavoidably glaring.
One finds a country almost at
war with itself, almost equally divided politically, socially, and more.
Maybe only an outsider who
used to be part of it could be able to notice and discern with some clarity and
certitude.
Thus the troubled question
above is posed.
The above question becomes
relevant as necessitated by the hazy picture shrouded in a bit of enigma and
mystery when one attempts to conceptualize what an American is. At times the image coming out is flattering,
but at other times deprecating.
Sometimes colored as white, at times as black, and still at other times as
an admixture of two ethnicities or more.
This bring us to a rather
idle treatise on the subject, inspired by some hope of elucidation.
Simply being or living in
American soil does not make one American. The soil does little or practically
nothing to make one American. Thus, a
tourist or a new migrant in America cannot hope to fully understand what it is
to be American, much less hope to become one in thought and action in a hurry. Not only because of the short duration of
stay but for more involved reasons.
Neither does the color of
one’s skin or one’s ethnicity determine whether one is an American. After all, the entire country itself is
composed of very diverse immigrants from practically all corners of the globe.
Being American does not lend
to being easily defined or reduced to words.
It is a tangled composite of many different intangible facets
accumulated over the many years of its existence. And it has been likened as the “grand social
experiment” by those who founded it.
All these intangibles reside collectively
in the people and the revered institutions that make this country whole and
recognizable, anchored in spirit and thought bequeathed by previous
generations of families dating back to its very founding. But the people themselves do not necessarily
know what they have that make them American and how others may be informed and
clothed to become part and parcel of the body politic.
And because of this seeming
paradox or mystery, it is no easy task to be American, maybe not even for those
who have lived all their lives in the country.
Because this requires a conscious effort at learning the qualities
needed to become one, especially because of the confluence and conflation of
many varied cultures and ethnicities in the country. And all this admittedly coupled with the concomitant
grating friction resulting from such coming together. Likened to tectonic upheavals we are most
familiar with. Unique combination and historic union not likely found or present
in all other countries in the world.
It rather demands total
immersion in this rather complicated and intermingled society we call the US of
A. The same process that countless other
previous immigrants have done in the past and continue doing in the present. And which produced a country like no other in
history, most likely because of the kind of body politic created by such.
The immersion medium itself
which has been in use innumerable times has undergone dilution and alterations
that what comes out may not be totally similar to the previous earlier ones.
One has to then be very
discerning and discriminating to determine which ones are still in congruence with
that in the past.
Put differently, it can be
likened to clear water that has been used in this immersion process over the
years becoming muddled and maybe not as recognizable as it was before. Thus, it is incumbent to have it regularly
tested and maybe cleaned so as to approximate how and what it was when it all
started.
As once an immigrant to the
country, I too have witnessed the many resultant changes in what it is to be American
since the beginning of our stay, and some changes one may judge as not
corresponding to the ideals once established by the founding fathers. This observation materializing in the short
span of a few decades.
But at the same time, one
also witnesses that though Americans come from diverse backgrounds and
ethnicities and cultures, they collectively speak like one, act like one, and
more importantly, exhibit values and behavior like one people, cohesive and
indivisible.
At least as gleaned from what its majority believes in.
