On behalf of some concerns that I am being very "anti-american" in my posts (the little posts I have) Taylor Kendrick said I should write a very "pro-american" post because america is "the best freakin' country ever!"
So here's to you Taylor, I may not be able to fully cover your love for america, but i will express the desire on what I have been thinking about for along time
The USA...and the rest of the world.
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If my other blog posts make me appear to be "anti-USA", then I apologize. It is not my intention to be like this. I am just simply pointing out the flaws I have found America to have since I have been aware of America's influence on the world.
I feel that America could learn from several countries about being healther, more knowledgable and more accepting of our lives and our history and our people like Italy.
I like the USA, we have the best of everything (and even then some), the best cities, and the diversity of its people is something other countries could envy. We have an abudance of wealth and are the leading nation in the entertainment industries.
And that is all great, in a sense
But I feel that, as Americans (and America in general), we are missing some critical links that ultimately Americans need to regain.
1) We need to be more relaxed.
America is in such a frenzy these days, always racing back and forth, to and fro that we never stop and actually stop and ponder about our lives.
America is one of the leading nations (developed nations) with less vacation time and more work hours, and as much as that helps out the economy, and our well beings in an economic sense, we, as human beings are still in a mess, disarrayed.
In Viterbo, during the Festivale di Santa Rosa, everyone, including people who work full-time, are still able to take a breather and relax on the beautiful days that they have here. Everyone is out on the streets, communicating and catching up with community activities, gossip, stories. Heck, even on regular days workers have a moment of siesta during the hours of 1-4 (or 13:00-16:00), to eat lunch, sleep and recharge for the evening hours to come.
Yes, these siesta times can sometimes be a bit obnoxious and frustrating for the curious tourist or american student who are on the move and want to buy stuff at a certain time, but when one is walking around the streets, the silence that fill them makes that single moment of a day seem a little less stressful.
2) We focus less on the family unit.
The family unit (which can consist of good friends, and others one considers family) appears to be severly lacking with many Americans. And the social structure of families, which includes being together, eating at dinner, discussing family events, seems to disappear in front of us.
As I noticed here in Viterbo, la famiglia is very strong, as everyone here tries to make it home to dinner by eight o'clock (scusa, 20:00), and during siesta 1-2 for lunch. Special weekend days are reserved for family outings and visits, and special holidays are, for the most part, a tradition that is also apart of the family. Even sitting around for hours watching television is an Italian bonding moment!
Now I could go on and on about how Italy is better than America and blah blah blah, but as I said before, that is not my intention. The main point I want to make is that even though America has everything materialistic and wealthy, we should remind ourselves of where we came from, the identity that forms who we are: the family and the community. I think that we need to find our stronger values of support, trust, family bonds and relaxation so we can actually take a step back and enjoy what we have in front of us.
And I know that America has extreme pressure to be always on top. That America is looked upon by a huge telescope (called the World) and that we have big influence on policies, ideas, predictions, solutions,money, fame, music, movies, books, techologies that we have to set up and be the "model country" for everyone.
Not only do we have to be to be leading role model for the rest of the world, we should be a leading role model for ourselves, and become a single identity that lives under common values and morality that America, seems, yet to find.
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hopefully, this is okay for my explanation for my "anti-america" speech in the previous posts....so Taylor, can you take down my facebook pictures from the school computers? its kind of creepy to see me all the time :)
Ciao,
Maya
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