Be Careful Which American Dream You Choose

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The American Dream -- In Search of More Stuff

The simplicity in which the BriBri lived their lives was stunning.  A child we saw had one toy -- Elmo on a string that dangled from the palm-thatched rafters.  Do children really need much more than that?  Do we?  I'm surrounded by stuff that I have to take care of.  I want to resist the urge to keep up with friends and relatives and be content with what I have.

As we drove to the BriBri village, we passed just a few yards from a river that forms the boundary line between Costa Rica and Panama.  This is by far the farthest south I've ever been.

On the way home from the BriBri, Jackie took us to a waterfall for a swim.  The water was the perfect temperature.  I got out when some fish started nibbling on me.

Cahuita and Exotic Flora and Fauna

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The American Dream of Retirement

Cahuita is on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, a country where Americans have flocked in recent years for an affordable American dream of retirement.  It was an interesting town.  Its main street was four blocks long, lined with restaurants that had no walls.  No need for walls, the weather is pleasant year-round.  Most of the eateries had concrete floors, but we had a delicious traditional Costa Rican lunch at one with a dirt floor.  A family made a living there serving guests at one table perched unevenly among tree roots and at one bar with six stools in front of it.  

Fauna and Flora of the Americas

The atmosphere of Cahuita was exotic to me.  One dead tree on Main Street played daily host to a dozen vultures.

The vulture tree

I had my first experience with howler monkeys.  Pre-dawn, these tiny creatures howl like giant vampires lusting to sink their teeth into human flesh.  I learned from the proprietor of our hotel that the monkeys resent human intrusion into their territory and take every opportunity to poop on cars or on people's beach towels left outdoors over railings.

Like the fauna, the flora was exotic.

I don't know its name, but I love it.

The Caribbean coast near Cahuita is the site of national forest that stretches to the horizon.

Our hotel proprietor, Marie-Claude, had a pet parrot that she worried about.  He was only half-wild -- he spent nights in the hotel in his cage with his food box.  He flew around freely during the day but couldn't be relied on to fend for himself in the wild.  He could say hello in English, French, Spanish and Dutch.  When we laughed at his antics, he laughed back at us, which made us laugh harder, and him harder, on and on...

Unleash the Genius of the American People

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I appreciated the opportunity to see how others in the Americas live, as you'll see below.  We are wildly blessed in the United States, and I think it's because of the Judeo-Christian values the country was founded on, which most of our people have tried to live out.  God's respect for the individual as portrayed in the Bible is the source of our Constitutional freedoms, which unleashed the genius of the American people.  We need country-wide to practice those same values of work, generosity to those in need, and worship of Creator God to unleash our genius again.

The Caribbean from within the national park in Cahuita, Costa Rica. We saw white-faced and howler monkeys, an alligator, a boat-billed heron, raccoons and a black bird with yellow feet and bill that might have been a toucan.  Also some lovely butterflies.  We looked diligently for sloths but for some reason they never caught our eye.

Somebody parked a trailer and left it too long in Cahuita.

Typical Cahuita houses.  Colorful, minimal.

Travel in "The Americas"

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Thanksgiving Day was the official end of my bus journey around America.

But not the end of my travels in "the Americas."  In December, I went to Costa Rica to check out my son's adopted country.  Since dollars are accepted in Costa Rica, it can be considered part of my "Americas" travel, in my opinion!

The people I got to know in Costa Rica are very happy, spend all of their free time with their families, do not pine for a designer pocketbook or for more acquisition, but are "contento" with simpler, more relaxed lives than we live in the New York City area.  "Contento" is the Costa Rican version of the American dream.

Granted, there is no great art or movies or Pulitzer-prize winning plays coming out of Costa Rica.  For that you need angst, strain, anguish, and culture to feed off of.

But if you're not so much interested in cultural history as in nature, and in being among happy people, Costa Rica is the right place.

My son Will, right, with Milton and Marta, the parents of Will's girlfriend, Indira.  When Will first called me on the phone to tell me he had met a great girl, I thought he said her name was "Endeara," and I thought it was an endearing name.

Will in Cahuita, on the Caribbean coast, with a hibiscus flower in his hair.

His lovely girlfriend, Indira, looks better with the hibiscus flower.

National Day of Mourning, aka Thanksgiving Day

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Since Thanksgiving Day 1970, the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts has hosted the National Day of Mourning, when Native Americans from all over the country demonstrate against all that happened after they kept the Pilgrims alive during the first winter.

Statue of Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoags, the tribe that enabled the Pilgrims survive their first winter, on Cole's Hill, overlooking Plymouth Harbor.

The plaque reads, in part:  "To [Native Americans], Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture.  Participants in national Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today...It is a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.  Erected by the Town of Plymouth on behalf of the United American Indians of New England."

The United American Indians of New England (UAINE) sponsor the event annually.  In spite of the fact that it was held on Thanksgiving Day, it was well attended by a diverse crowd.

This was the last official day of my America bus trip.  But my blog is not over!  I had the opportunity to travel further, not in America but in "the Americas," Costa Rica to be exact.  My son is an expat there, teaching ESL and loving all the Costa Ricans who are just like him, happy and not riddled with angst.  Businesses in CR accept dollars, so that makes it official, my travels there were American.  Stay tuned.

Reclaim the American Spirit - Plymouth Harbor on Thanksgiving Day

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This replica of the Mayflower in Plymouth, Massachusetts is another example of how Americans are so strangely interested in ersatz experiences.  Epcot is the prime example.  New ski villages in the Rockies modeled after Bavarian towns, complete with cuckoo in the clock tower, is another.

Come on, America!  Seek the real thing!  Make your dreams come true instead of letting the television suck the creativity out of you!  It's the only way we're going to reclaim the American spirit -- by working to make our own dreams come true.

The Pilgrims came to America to make a dream of freedom come true.  Unfortunately, from that point on, Euro-American settlers killed the Native Americans' dream of living on the land as freely as ever.

There's got to be a way for people to make their dreams come true without ruining the lives of others.  Let's do it.

Plymouth Harbor on Thanksgiving Day.  A replica of the Mayflower reveals how small and fragile a ship it was.  Our dreams can be fragile, but we can make it, just like the Pilgrims did.

What's believed to be Plymouth Rock, housed in a Greek-style temple on the shore.  The waters of Plymouth Harbor lap at it perpetually.  Don't let time or discouragement erode your dreams.

An American Dream (Sort of) in New Hampshire

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On my way from Portland to Manchester, I took a small side trip to not only Portsmouth, NH but also Keene, NH because people told me it was a picturesque, historic New England town. 

The Keene Public Library caught my eye, a historic home (to the left) with a wing added (right).  

The reference librarian steered me to Alan Rumrill, Executive Director of the Historical Society of Cheshire County (above).  She said he had more stories than anybody in Keene.

Alan Rumrill told me the story of General James Wilson, a resident of Keene who became a general in the New Hampshire militia in the 1830s and 1840s.  When he was called upon to lead men in the Civil War, he declined, saying he was too old.

Wilson was involved in New Hampshire state politics in the 1840s.  He had many friends in state government, but he was lured to California by the gold rush.  His wife had died, but that didn't stop him from leaving his children and taking a government position in California.  His two daughters were in their early teens, and his son even younger.  

He corresponded with his daughters, who complained of being stuck in the house.  They had to go to school, of course, but “they were not able to have the opportunity to get out and socialize and have financial support to do those things other people were doing in the community,” Mr. Rumrill said.  “They also had the care of the younger brother.  Wilson didn’t send a lot of money back to his children.”

The general eventually came back to Keene, picked up where he left off, and was elected to the state legislature.  He died a local hero, a satisfying American dream come true, for him.

His papers were bequeathed to the Historical Society, where they lay dormant for years.  It was only when his correspondence with his children came to light, while two authors researched a book based on the correspondence entitled, “Sisters of Fortune,” that local opinion changed. 

“He’s now considered prominent politically, socially, and militarily in the area but is also seen as an inattentive father who was more concerned with doing things that were of interest to him than in caring for his children,” Mr. Rumrill said.

The office of the Historical Society of Cheshire County in Keene, New Hampshire, in a stately mansion that was part of someone's American dream.

Occupy Keene, hard at it mid-day on a weekday, working toward keeping the American dream a possibility for everyone, not just the 1%.