Kiwi On The Loose

Well Happy Christmas that’s gone and Happy New Years that’s gone but will keep happening for another 361 days.

On the other side of these holidays I wish the excitement could have lasted longer. Bring back 3 day celebrations like in the real olden times. Though I enjoyed them, the build up and all that, going to friends places, the decorative atmosphere everywhere, the days themselves passed with me in solitude, thinking as usual, but happy. I like time alone,

BUT perhaps being alone on Christmas and New Years isn’t something I want to do too often.

Stranger in a strange land, I will find those who are alone and invite them to my humble table at such festive times.

AND

though socialism may get the bad press in America, the land of opportunity, the  home of capitalist crashes and wonders, (and I don’t even know if this has anything to do with socialism or if its just plain good sense), I like the way in NZ we have two statutory days off at Xmas and New Years. Which most people enjoy.

That don’t happen to everyone in this great and blessed land. It seems time may stand still on those actual celebratory days and then its back to the grindstone/treadmill for workers and the driven. The blessed middle class. Perhaps Obama or some wise person will put an end to this madness.

More time off may be the luxury of the wealthy and economically unchallenged. Or the sane.

Nope. America never stops. It’s a 24 hour going concern.

When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn.

Forgive my sarcastic sentiments, I am reflecting on my time here.

I am on the eve of leaving and returning to one of the blessed nations on earth, my home soil, hills, salt water , rivers and mountains. Aotearora/New Zealand. AND a job.

I will struggle with serious rejection issues incurred by this land of the free. It cost me $300  US, thats nearly $570 NZ,  for me to get a piece of paper telling me what I already knew about applying for an extension and no I couldn’t stay in USA  for another 6 months.

I am angry and will probably stay angry about that, and what really irks me is that any attempt to come back to USCIS about the reasons they gave that cost 300 buks to write out in the denial letter would not move a speck of emotion in the organisation OR find any chinks where they might think, yes he’s right, we have misleading forms to fill in.

The American Federal agencies have a jadedness to people, there are just so many, you feel like a number when you go there, the experience can strip you of human touch.

Ho HUM….it’s just part of the American way. Like it or lump it..You are just another person in the line and there are many behind you, and coming tomorrow and the next day and the next.

The assumption is that all comers are leaches on the system. Some want to give. I did. I could have been a great advocate for America. A PR bonus in fact.I see good here as well as the stupidity.

Individuality reigns supreme in America, if you want to express yourself, or carry a gun, be a crazy on the Colfax bus, have a choice of salad dressings, or become a millionaire. But it doesn’t reign supreme in places where it should, places where you should feel like you are being treated like an individual. Like governmental agencies and airports.

In that De Caprio movie ‘Blood Diamonds’, they had this term, TIA which means ‘this is Africa’, you know banana republics and the politics of graft and corruption …………well in my book TIA will also mean this is America. Nothing surprises me.

AND yet I can see what makes this country potentially a great place again.

Some people are looking for answers in all the wrong places.

So that my gut spill of grrrrrrr against the place I have grappled with, loved and come to understand a bit. ( I can’t say understand  a lot, to give credence to the millions of thinking/processing miles my brain and heart have done as I have walked and rode the buses, because some will say, what do you know ‘kiwi’.)

Perhaps they are right, and I have no right to think or form any opinions about America becoz I ain’t one.

BUT hey, I am going home, to a job. That in itself in these perilous times will be a luxury.

AND I will go home a different beast.

Gona be funny though.

I used to have  fridge magnet that said, ‘You can’t scare me, I have kids’.

Well I have a few new versions, that I will ponder when I am confronted by wanabe gangster types in NZ who grow larger thru intimidation type looks and walks and words and dress styles……………..and copy American styles from TV, music and movies

I might get badges that say…………’you can’t scare me, I have riden the Colfax buses’………..or ‘you can’t scare me, I have lived in America for 8 months’………..or ‘you can’t scare me, I seen real black people’. (and they ain’t all gangsters)

Yes going home is gona be funny. The reverse might happen. I will do NZ /America comparisons in real time now.

Living here has changed me inside, its been great. Quite apart from the awesome people I have meet and come to know.

Just looking at the mountains, seeing the land just spreading out forever from the window of the plane in every direction..

Seeing the iron work, faux finishes and tiling in America. The unique trucks purpose built. Massive antique shops, AND The Home Depot. (tool paradise)

Seeing people who are just the same externally as New Zealanders commuting home at dusk, but have the internal characteristics of having  grown in different soil.

Yes this has been awesome for my own growth.

I wonder if I changed anything in America just by being here. That smile, that touch.

Leaving is tinged with a not wanting to go, I know I haven’t got the full scoop of this country.

Don’t think I am far off though.

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