Strength

Last week, in the whirlwind of visits and dinners that are typical of my trips to my pseudo-hometown of Winston-Salem, I was treated to a visit with my grandparents. For a lot of people, the visit to the grandparents is the lowlight of a trip home, but, besides the sometimes-stressful political tongue-biting, my visits with my grandparents reminds me what amazing people they are. Strong, principled, outspoken and hardworking, they're exactly the sorts of people that almost justify Tom Brokaw's blatherings over "the Greatest Generation".¹

Besides my grandmother's incredible documentation of our family (it blows my mind that she's kept dance cards from her high school days and telegraphs of congratulations on her marriage), I'm always endlessly impressed with my grandfather's enthusiasm for the accomplishments of his family and country. His unquestioned faith that the things his family are doing may be short-sighted, but it's still really beautiful in a way, and it's this faith that has guided his success and made him strong. Should he slow down and accept that maybe, just maybe, there are other people doing things that are just as good? Is his refusal to believe anything but that his family is the best ever kind of arrogant? Well, maybe. But I can't help but admire the strength and conviction that it's given him.

It struck me this time that it says an enormous amount about the American spirit, for better and worse. We're known throughout the world as having this same kind of arrogance: that our way is the best way. But it's that same arrogance/conviction that's pushed this country to give us the kind of life that most of us are lucky enough to lead.

¹ While my grandparents stories of the depression and WWII are amazing, Brokaw is full of it. That generation came together when they had to, because they had to. It's amazing and admirable, but it doesn't make them "greater" than any preceding or succeeding generation.