Kiwi On The Loose

I didn’t know that I lived in paradise until January this year.Just before I turned 51.
The realisation happened while I was having a brief holiday staying with a photographer friend in America. Back in NZ from Denver, I had reflected lots on New Zealand in comparison to the USA, and what the strengths of each were and most importantly what made ‘kiwi’ kiwi.

I am no sleaze when it comes to collecting useless information, but in my brief stay in the USA I was disgusted at how little I knew about NZ. Like people would ask how long it was, or whats the highest mountain etc…durrrr! I dunno!

I found America to be totally HUGE, totally awe inspiring, and I saw beauty at every turn as I was taken in and out of The Rockies. Just traveling the freeways of Denver with the mountains in the distance as a backdrop was wonderful. It produced in me a sense of respect and wonder. Flying from LA to Denver and later on from Denver to Dallas, I can remember being the guy with his nose stuck to the window hypnotised by the view beneath me just sprawling out forever and ever and then some.  Land stretching out so far and wide……………where was the sea. Flying in New Zealand you can see both coasts on a fine day, or even a not so fine day.

I remembered lots of songs in America as I traveled. I felt like Woody Guthrie or who ever wrote ‘This land is your land….this land is my land.’ I felt the love and respect for the land, the hugeness of it. I loved even the roads, I was happy as a pig in mud taking photos thru the windscreen as we travelled. I could see why this nation was carved into to the hearts of its inhabitants. The sheer living with it commanded some kind of reverent, respect and awe as well as the resulting arrogance evident is some Americans, its politics and attitudes consequent to the exhilaration of having tamed the land and covered it with railway lines, freeways and things. The ‘I did it my way mentality’, that everything can be subdued in the end.

Still I found myself captivated by America, home of the free. I met some very lovely people and made some wonderful friends. It deeply effected my spirit. I had been a while coming to the realisation that all people are basically the same. You have to go outside and over the road to do that. 6500miles over the road. When I got home and processed it all and scrutinised the America portrayed on TV …I wasn’t so sure. Reality television doesn’t help America’s image, and the sad thing is Americans seem to feel the more right the more they are disliked on the world stage it seems.. Was it as wonderful as I thought? I wanted it to be and still do, but I am not so sure. I think the way to find out is to really spend a lot of time in several places in down home America, and I ‘d like to return to do that sometime. To be part of actually existing in a space and become part of it for a while.

So till next time.
cheers
I will get to paradise bit in the end.. Please feel free to comment. I so know these are my own opinions and I like a robust debate!

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