Life in America Part 1
Dearest Daughter,
On my way to work today I realized that I hadn't written you in a while. And yet so much has passed since I last put key to monitor (ya know... they use to say pen to paper... but good luck with that).
Christmas was a wonderful day with you. Everyone wanted to see you. You were amazing as usual. Your family seems to love you more than anything I've ever seen.
You got some music stuff - for our little bands - of Banjo and Banana (of which one day you will be supremely disappointed to find that Daddy doesn't play any instruments - although a music love - not much for the physical ability to carry a tune), some stuffed animals, some clothes, lots of weird toys that do stuff and you seem to just love all of it.
You saw all your aunts and uncles. You went to your Grandmother's a little after Christmas because it snowed. You met your Great Grandfather again - he has pictures of you all over his room. He cried when you left. You met your Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Sharon, and cousins Jeremiah and Isaac for the first time. They seemed enamored and loving with you.
You're a very happy baby... Except when you're not happy. But overall you're a giant hit. And you seem to be developing in to what your mother can only assume is quite the wonderful person. We can't wait to raise you and love you for the rest of your life.
One thing that I regret is not seeing you for more than about an hour every day. These days - you get up at 8 and I'm gone, and you go to bed at 7 - and I don't get home until 6 most nights. I feel like a stranger sometimes coming home because you and your Mom see each other and have obviously created an amazing bond. It's good to see but Dad sometimes feels left out. Hopefully this will change...
But a man has to work... and also has to blow off steam when he works that much and at that stressful of a pace.
Ya see Daddy's job is to make money. Mostly for other people - but in all honesty he's lucky enough to work in place where his efforts directly effect the bottom line. That's a good thing. That means - I work for myself in a lot of ways.
On my way in today though I had some burning thoughts in my head about what I wanted to impart on you about the country and world you were born into.
It's an interesting time in America.
Usually when someone says it's an interesting time... they really mean... it's terrible. And quite honestly it isn't... but it also is a terrible time from an individuals mental stability standpoint. Meaning - most people are scared and blind.
What you have now in America is a country of fear and anger. Everyone is scared. Everyone is misinformed. Everyone is a little lazy. And everyone is very very greedy.
In the 50's they had what they call the "Great Generation". This was the generation of people that built what came to be known as the American Dream. Work hard. Be honest. Have a family. Live a nice life. While that idea wasn't fully accurate, and most nostalgia is worthless, it was still a simpler time where our world wasn't so cluttered with a gimme gimme mentality.
This mentality is perpetuated across all fronts - but the one I am most aware of is the world of marketing. Marketing is dangerous. Marketing and money currently run the United States of America. Marketing can be a protection of power and devise used to divide and instill fear in people. It has driven us far from who we really are as humans.
We have become consumers. We have become mistrusting. We have become enemies of our own self and in turn we look to others to provide us answers that we ourselves should seek out. All in all the masses are losing.
America is no longer an idea perpetuated in one's own ability to make right what it is that they see wrong. It's a place where you blame and count on others for your survival and happiness.
I'll cut this short and hope to return to it again. But the lesson or insight I would like to impart on you is to be your own person. Don't follow false leaders. Don't believe people that are convincing of you something simply because they will benefit. Be strong in your resound. Be independent and learn to say when something is right and wrong based on your beliefs. And gain those beliefs from your own experiences... not from someone else's.
You will be a lot of things in your life.
You will be a daughter. A student. A child. A teenager. A lover. A mother. A worker. A learner. But most of all you have to be you first. You have to be able to stand alone. You have to be the America that was born inside of you. America is a melting pot of many kinds of people. Make sure your addition to our country is one that can stand and be counted.
