A Stranger in a Familiar Land
I've been back in the United States for a couple weeks now, and I'm surprised how much is the same, and how much is different. I had been reading, during my time in China, about how America has been changing during the four years that I've been away, but now that I'm planning to be here for a year or two, experiencing these changes for myself is quite different.
When I last lived in the U.S. four years ago, America seemed to enjoy unparalleled prosperity, while the whole world basked in its glow. Americans complained about many things of course, but generally we took for granted an overall optimism that things would only keep on getting better for us. I imagined the most upsetting element of American culture to be a widespread materialism, combined with overblown concern with celebrities and various petty issues of the day. I had a sense that our biggest problems in the future would continue to lie with the burdens and excesses of being the world's most well-to-do society
I had just graduated from college, and I wanted to explore a new life in the land on the other side of the world. I was also eager to get away from a country that understood little of the disheartening living conditions that many other people are living in. When I left, war seemed like a far away thing from history.
But the times have changed. I think in the coming weeks, it would be useful for me, and for you too, I hope, to try to process these changes that have taken place in my homeland, as well as changes in my own life that have taken place during the same period of time.
