 |
| The Lindis Pass |
Many years ago, I got to know an older gentleman who my
friends and I quickly christened “Erhart, ze Happy Bavarian”. Erhart was a
lovely guy and a beautiful skier by any measure despite his advanced age, and
he had a wonderfully positive outlook at all times. Erhart grew up in Garmisch
Partenkirchen in Bavaria – Garmisch is a legendary alpine town that was among
the first places liberated by Allied Forces during World War II, and it remains
today a major R&R station for American armed forces personnel. Having grown
up in Garmisch during the difficult post-war years, Erhart developed a love for
Americans and for the idea of America that he clung to with both hands when I
knew him. He traveled to the USA often for work and, interestingly, the first
thing he did each time he arrived in America was to buy a Hershey’s chocolate
bar. In the context of his youth surrounded by GI’s who represented all that
was great and good in America in that most optimistic time for our country, the
symbolism of a simple Hershey’s bar is clear – its iconic packaging in the
same way as a Coca-Cola bottle; its uniquely sweet, American-style milk chocolate;
and the vivid olfactory memories it triggered of the friendly, outgoing, active
and exuberant men in uniform who handed them out to the kids in the streets of
Germany and who were his first exposure to the people of the New World.
The men
and women in uniform that inhabited Erhart's childhood memories precisely matched
his movie heroes and, therefore, his media exposure to Americans – Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and
the like. They continued to inform his view of our country and to stoke his
imagination of it, and this was downright inspirational to me at the time we met. Unfortunately, my experience as an American overseas makes
clear that young adults around the world take a vastly different view of who we
are as a people. I am certain, however, that most people around the world who
have any substantial and substantive interaction with Americans abroad continue
to have a generally positive view of us as a people. By ‘substantive’ I am not
referring to the Americans on tour in a bus, rather the Americans who take the
time on the ground to experience the places they visit. We are genuinely friendly,
inquisitive, confident and easy going. So what’s my point? About what am I
groaning this time?
The problem for Americans at the moment is that, in my view,
most people around the world do not have real interaction with Americans but
they do see a lot of America on TV and in the media. And by a lot of America, I
do not mean that they see a good cross-section of our country. I meant that
they see a high volume of some parts of America, and those parts are not
generally positive, not indicative of who we are, and definitely not
flattering. Jersey Shore is not what 99.9% of Americans would choose to show to
the world as an example of who we are as a people, but that type of exposure is
precisely what most of the world sees of us. It may be hard to stomach, but The
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reaches homes around the globe and Prairie
Home Companion does not. Entertainment Tonight, not Walter Cronkite. Swamp
People, not Newhart. Baseball made the news here in New Zealand when A-Rod’s
steroid use and his lying about it became such a big story this year, but the
terrific resurgence of the Pittsburgh Pirates and what it says about small
market teams and our love of the national pastime was nowhere to be seen.
Thankfully, there are enough people around here in New
Zealand who have some inkling of the sea change as between their parents (and
grandparents) understanding of who we are as a people and modern, media-fueled
tom-foolery. They often ask me to explain things to them that they hear from
the media, and I do my best to be honest about our strengths and weaknesses as
a nation and as a people while making clear my unvarnished and unapologetic
love of my country. Still, the whole process does leave me a bit uncomfortable.
Snooky definitely is not Jimmy Stewart, and it’s not always clear whether I’m
clinging to out-of-date concepts of who we are or there really is a gap between
media and reality. Let’s call it ‘reality TV as oxymoron’, with the emphasis on
the moron.
By calling ‘em like I we ‘em, by expressing who we are and
what we think, by being opinionated but informed and liberal thinking (with a
lower case ‘l’), we Americans who live here in Wanaka do provide a living
example every day of the kind of nation we are and aspire to be. Warts and all.
Some days, the mighty Casey does strike out and there’s just no joy in
Mudville, but I do always end my days confident that open-minded people
understand who we are, how different we are from place to place in America, and
how it can be that the things that we share across our country are those things
that make us great as a nation.
I do love Wanaka and New Zealand. I feel very welcome and comfortable here,
and I enjoy my time here immensely. Still, I miss home while I’m away and I’ll
be glad to get back to America soon. In the meantime, it’d be a lot easier for
me down here if only I could get a decent sandwich, for crying out loud. How
are those damn Yankees doing anyway?
 |
| North Otago high country near Omarama, NZ |
 |
| Lake Ohau with Mount Cook / Aoraki in the distance |
