America - the end
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Thu 24 Nov 2011 03:24
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I write this on our last evening in the USA. It's
amazing that we have been here very nearly half a year. The time has just flown
past in a whirl of mending the boat, cleaning the boat, mending the boat again,
cleaning the boat, mending the boat some more (you get the idea) and the
occasional trip ashore.
Our overall impression of America and Americans has
changed dramatically as a result of our sojourn here. we are still amazed by how
friendly, polite and courteous their society is. Everyone wants to help, to be
of service, to go out of their way to assist even complete strangers like us. It
is routine to be offered lifts, or even a car(!), for traffic to stop
to let you cross the road and to be invited back to someone's house for a meal
as a complete stranger. In six months here I have not heard a raised voice, I
have not seen a misbehaving youth, I have not seen anyone who has drunk too
much, I have not seen a stray dog. The streets are clean, spotlessly so; kids
don't drop litter because their parents don't. No chewing gum on the pavement.
Society, at least down the East Coast, seems calm orderly and pleasant and the
people are just lovely. I am ashamed of our national culture in the UK, in
comparison to here.
But then you look at their mad and often extremely
unpleasant national politics, and their addiction to guns and religion, and you
just have to think again - and be very afraid. How can a nation of such seemigly
nice people have ended up like this? A big question to which there is no simple
answer, so I shan't attempt to give one.
But to finish on a nice note, here is a typically
American thing. This beautiful flower arrangement graces the foyer of the
excellent Chrysler Museum of Art here in Norfolk (which has a superb
collection of glassware). It has been done for the museum by local
volunteers, because that's what they're like here. I've never seen anything
similar in a British museum. Anyway, here it is:
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