Outside perspective

I have an intro to poetry and poetics class taught by a Scotsman. Prof Miller is a wee wisp of a man, who frequently dresses smartly in flashy grey suits and vests. He has a habit of putting his chin up and squinting his eyes so one can't really tell if he's closing them or just looking through his eyelashes whenever he tries to remember what he was talking about. This happens quite frequently as he tends towards rabbit trails.

One primo example is today's 75 minute class. The first 45 minutes of it we didn't even discuss poetry or poetics. We discussed... America. And food portions. And customer service. Prof Miller was telling of his time in Ithaca, NY, speaking at Cornell. He was aghast at the quantity of food he got at an "eatery of some sorts" that some students recommended to him. He was quite overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices one had to make to get a simple sandwich: Which type of sandwich meat? Which cooking method? Seasoning? Bread style? Bread type? Vegetables? Pickle type? "Chip" type? All for 4 or 5 dollars. He said he struggled to carry the platter to a table to sit down after his quarter of an hour decision making process and the scowling of all the people in the queue.

He observed that Americans seem quite willing to accept and tolerate people of a vast variety - car owners or not, as he classified them. He couldn't understand the business of tipping people. He also commented on our attitude towards customer service - he claims that just because someone is serving someone else doesn't make the service-person a SERVANT. He rather likes the French way of taking pride in their occupation.

It was facinating to hear P. Miller and the other non-American students discuss their impressions of the US. We also discussed how places or people are really IDEAS in our head. I have several stereotyped ideas about Italians and French and English and Scottish and Irish and Russian and all the other nationalities out there - but in all truth, they're not accurate. They can't possibly be all accurate.

P. Miller expressed his realization that the US is really BIG, with a lot of differences even within our nation. Of course! If you think about it, Scotland is quite varied, from the borderlands to the north, from the east to the west... People a mere hour-drive-away have a completely different ACCENT. Scotland isn't even as large as some of the STATES in the USA, not to mention having FIFTY of them! To presume the US is homogenous is aking akin to saying Swedish and French and Ukranians and Italians are all similar because they inhabit Europe. Not quite the same, of course, considering each of those nations speaks a different language, but just because two people or two people groups inhabit the same land mass doesn't make them identical.

That's something I've learned even since being here, though. Americans are a vast, varied, broad-minded lot! I, unfortunately, have the impression that MY part of the US is how every part is... I feel that the NW is decidedly laid back yet high strung (probably from all the coffee we drink). We are sharply divided by many things - liberal, green city dweller contrasted with conservative, hunting country-er (is that a word?). The yuppies who wear sweater-vests and khakis with thick glasses going to office jobs having something to do with computers, and the dread-locked homeless people sleeping under bridges and smoking pot, AND the artistic, pale, introverted and clique-ish coffee-house youth. People who go to church on Sundays and spend the rest of the week with their Bibles in the trunk of their car. The people who live for the outdoor activities: hiking, biking, mountain climbing, skiiing, canoeing. Even within my description of the NW is a VAST difference, yet I see it as common for all these people to live together and co-exist. I'm learning that isn't the way it is everywhere. For example, in the southeast I feel that appearances and what one SAYS is a lot more important. The NW can be pretty blunt sometimes. I have this stereotype image of one southern woman whispering to another one, "Bless my soul, do you SEE that girl's hair? Lord bless her heart." And in the Northwest I imagine people as being more assertive and demanding, "I asked for my cuoffee THAT way and I demind my money back since YOU made the mistake." I also imagine the Northeast as being a bit more formal in social interaction.

So where am I going with this? I have no idea! I actually need to just stop and go to class, so I'll cease rambling about now. I usually like discussing the poetry in my poetry class, but the 45 minutes I spent listening to other people's views of America - both non-Americans AND Americans trying to explain America, which is really only their understanding of America - was probably the most thought-provoking, interesting, and possibly even... enlightening? 45 minutes I've spent in a long time!