I Too Love America

Or at least Niagara Falls on a steamy June Sunday, embodying all that I love about America, for there is a lot I love about America.

I love America's natural wonders. I've seen a lot of natural wonders in a lot of countries (and I must admit that, as a waterfall experience, Victoria Falls trumps Niagara), but there's no question that America's natural wonders, hell, America's nature, is pretty damn great. Yosemite? Badlands? Yellowstone? That's good stuff. Big Sur? Coastal Maine? Vermont mountains? Definitely worth loving. As is Niagara Falls.

I love America's diversity. Yes, I know: racism, conflict, hypocrisy, the melting pot bullshit. But Niagara Falls on a steamy June Sunday is all that's good about American diversity: lots of different kinds of people--middle-American white folks, Indian grandmas in saris, Puerto Rican moms pushing strollers, black couples on first dates--screaming the same screams at the same spray on the Maid of the Mist, eating the same ice cream cones, throwing the same sticks over the same fence at the same overlook. Niagara Falls is a vision of what we could be.

I love America's parks. From the playground around the corner at our new house, to the state beaches filled with picnicking families, to the national parks you see once in a lifetime, if you're lucky. Parks are great, America has lots of them, and Niagara Falls is a lovely one.

I love the way Americans do happy. Maybe this one isn't so nation-specific, but maybe it is. Americans certainly do anger and sadness and the full range of emotions, and we do a lot of them ugly. I'm sure on a steamy August Sunday, there would be a lot of whining toddlers and cranky teenagers and frustrated parents at Niagara Falls. But on that steamy June Sunday, everyone at Niagara Falls was, miraculously, happy. Smiling, laughing, joking, squealing happy. I don't think it was just because we were happy, though we were. It was something about the beginning of summer, and all that water, and the flowers in bloom, and being just a little too hot so that getting cold and wet up close to the falls was a perfect pleasure.

It's nice to be reminded of what there is to love.