Americaland
Last weekend my beau and I drove down to Ithaca, New York. I've never been to that area of the United States before. In fact, I've never really been anywhere in the United States - save for Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. And since I'm from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario - that really wasn't much of a life altering experience. Especially since most of my trips over to Soo, Mich. involved hitchhiking across the International Bridge (imagine doing that TODAY kids!) to go drinking at the Alpha Bowling Lanes on Sunday nights (Bill Davis's Ontario not allowing bars to be open on Sunday nights in case his Catholic God smote us all dead for enjoying life on The Sabbath, I guess). Amazingly enough, the drinking age in Soo, Mich. was 21 as opposed to Bill Davis's Ontario's 18 (on account of Bill Davis's Catholic God liked his teenagers drunk every other day of the week, I guess). And even though I regularly had to show I.D. in the Soo, Ontario bars, I managed to drink in the Alpha Bowling Lanes on the occasional Sunday night with no questions asked. Beyond, "What size bowling shoes do you wear, kid?"
Ah... Americaland.
Good old depressed economy - come all ye underaged Canadians over to drink! - Americaland. (I'd say it had something to do with the closing of Kincheloe Air Force Base - but it didn't. Americaland was THAT slack! I mean - I looked 12 on the outside and I was passing myself off as 21 - even in my brothers old high school jacket...)
But back to now and the spectacular drive to Ithaca, New York from Ottawa. Uh... Canada. Ottawa, Canada. (I always wonder when putting a return address on a letter - since it's Ottawa, shouldn't it be just "Ottawa, Canada"? That's what I put down, anyway. Ontario shouldn't really figure into it, I don't think. Toronto, Ontario - but Ottawa, Canada. That's how I see it.)
I'd never seen The Adirondacks OR the Finger Lakes and my-oh-my - are they worth seeing. And I really don't think I've seen so much rolling farmland spread between so many quaint historic towns before, either. But I'm from Northern Ontario and I guess that's all just so much newer. Without any old money or new money or much money at all to quaint it up a bit for the drive-thru. But it seemed like every new vista was more spectacular than the last and each new town more quaint. In a slightly delapidated way that suggested the whole region could use a good coat of paint. (I'm used to Americans coming up North to exclaim over the Northern Shore - a Northern Shore which I despised for it's "water on one side, forest on the other" monotony, having done the drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay more times than really was fair. And if I never see another Group of Seven painting it will be too soon - thank you very much!)
Meanwhile, I couldn't help but notice the odd billboard telling drivers that ABORTION MURDERS!! And other billboards - neon billboards - claiming JESUS SAVES!!
Now, I've seen similar things in Northern Ontario. But not on the property of say... a Holiday Inn. Or a McDonalds. I mean, I get it that Americans have a real religious revival thing going on and that abortion is the biggest bad of the bad and that Jesus is the biggest good of the good - but good God in heaven! A Holiday Inn? A McDonalds?
That's real Americaland.
Real jarring juxtaposition Americaland.
Anyway, on to Ithaca. My beau was doing research at the Public Library so rather than wander around by myself (something I really don't like doing much anymore - I've had a lifetime of it - I'd rather sit and stare in a group setting these days - or wander around with someone else) I picked a book off the shelf, found a comfy chair, and started reading. The book is called "Minaret" and it's by Leila Aboulela. It's the story of a young Sudanese woman's wander (and that's really the only word for it) towards Islam. It begins in 1984 in Khartoum and ends in 2003 London. I began reading on Friday afternoon and finished Saturday morning. Five hours of reading and I didn't skim, either. It's a good book. Ironical, too, that I read it in The Great Satan - which we'd been joking about ever since we'd crossed the border. "The Great Satan" this, "The Great Satan" that. "We're here for the Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorist Convention."
Next thing I know we're in the Ithaca Public Library - a busy library, too, I might add - in the quaintest downtown of The Great Satan and I'm reading about Islamic Fundamentalism.
Short story shorter, it struck me on this one little trip that The Great Satan is very quaint looking, but obviously quite "live and let live" in that "other" Americans (the normal, sane, Democratic, secular human ones - er... if there is such a thing in Americaland) don't erect counter billboards claiming "ABORTION SAVES!!" and "JESUS MURDERS!!" to start billboard wars all over beautiful rolling farmland and that after reading just one novel about a young woman's wander towards Islamic Fundamentalism while sitting in the heart of Americaland, Allah doesn't seem so threatening, either.
I guess it's all in how you interpret the world.
Eh?
