Livin' in the USA

‘$100,000’

I was merely stating what the documents I’d given her stated, our worth.

She was unimpressed and searched for the monthly income line.

‘Hmm.’ she went, which was barely perceptive to a normal person. I noticed it though.

‘I’ll call you.’

She never did.

I walked off, seeing that even though we could afford not to work for awhile, but could rather enjoy a bit of leisure, the landlords would not allow us this pleasure. We needed to work for them.

A homeless person waddled by with a grocery cart full of possessions. There was probably more stuff in that basket than I had in the tiny studio apartment I was camped out in for the time being. I noticed he had a shiny silver watch on his wrist. Both of mine were bare.

I’m only a very small step away from that, I thought.

Who knew it would come to this? In a past life being locked out was expected, but it wasn’t anymore, after I’d acquired some serious credentials.

Well, that’s my pretensions rearing their ugly heads. How foolish to believe the hype.

It would be summer soon, the real summer, not these measly days of 80’s and such. The overarching trees provided their welcome cover, and I had to wonder where I’d be when those days rolled around.

I went back to the place to watch baseball and drink beer.

Who would have thought it would come to this?

            In America you can’t rent a place no matter how much money you have (not considering millionaires and such here, only regular people with a nest-egg to live off), without a monthly income of 3x the rent.. As in many other things, Americans wear blinders and are oblivious to the realities of the world, and to a life outside the grind. Things must conform to the script. God help you if your history has been in another part of the world. That doesn’t count to an American. It doesn’t really exist.

            For example, your credit history of paying off houses and cars and having credit cards and bills count as nothing if they were incurred in a foreign country. Recite this history and an American’s eyes will glaze over and they will disappear into the place where all things are as in America. It’s in one ear and out the other. Not even a single ching registers on the cashbox of that mentality. America is simply not geared up to deal with things and people that happen elsewhere. Try counting the forms, in whatever format, that don’t allow the option of somewhere other than the 50 states, or maybe Puerto Rico, to be chosen.

            Americans don’t really believe that there is a world outside the lower 48, and a few other add-ons - except as occasional tourist destinations.

            When I was interviewed for a position in South Africa nine years ago I was laughed at when I told them I didn’t have a passport. Believe me, now I know what they meant.

            Now I’m back, without much welcome.

            It’s all quite frustrating and I hope you will forgive me if my respect for the intelligence and soul of a people as a whole, and any number of individually seemingly kind and reasonable people, appears to have eroded a bit. It’s unavoidable. 

            I see the country as a case of mass constipation, and hope for the moment when it lets it all out.

            I know this little bit won't help anything get more sane, and I know the world is mad from pole to pole, but it makes me feel better, and I count that as a good thing.