Musings on Patriotism

America is a textbook teenager: fun loving, fancy-free, self-obsessed, and very dramatic. We are preparing for our trip abroad, and on the Fourth of July, it is hard not to reflect on our nation. Abroad, I tend to find some reserve supply of patriotism and defend my home turf. Lots of people have lots of opinions about America. America doesn't just divide me, it divides most of the world. For me, it is weird to get irritable about people picking on your nation when you do it anyway. My feathers are easily ruffled about it all.

I do not think my dilemma is unusual. I apologize for getting uppity, but politics is different for girls. In Three Guineas, Virginia Woolf waxes beautifully about why women do not have to feel loyal to one flag. If women do not equally share power, they should not feel incredibly patriotic. She writes, "As a woman, I have no country. As a woman, I need no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world."

Anyway, we're leaving again. Time to be ruffled.