'Merica -- Home of the Fat, Happy, and Wonderfully Stubborn

 So... This is more than Two Cents worth of thoughts. Maybe Two Euros...

But bear with me. Like Flannery O'Connor, I don't know what I think about things until I write about them.

Germany vs America vs 2021

Out Kevvy and Ina's back door. Bavaria is the most 
beautiful place I have ever visited.

Two months in Germany taught me many things. First, there are many ways to do a thing -- and some are better than others. I found out that German groceries, are better, cheaper, and healthier, for one thing. German plumbing, doors, and windows are, for the most part, better than ours. The towns and the countryside I saw (specifically in Bavaria) have a beautiful sense of historic preservation and tidiness that America lacks. Germany is a beautiful country and its people are keen to keep it that way, because Germans, as a people, are orderly -- wonderfully, maddeningly orderly! Bless them! (Don't get me started on the recycling obsession over there! )

I think it's a fact that different nations have different national characters, no one of them being any better or worse than another -- any more than one child's inborn character is better or worse than another's -- but still, I really believe it's an observable phenomenon. It doesn't take much traveling to see that the national character of Germany is different than the character of Italy, for instance. Canadians and Mexicans, likewise, are worlds apart. Swedes and Brazilians wouldn't know what to do about one another. You see what I mean.

The trick with temperaments, though -- whether they're individual's or nation's -- is understanding the
strengths and the weaknesses that come with them. Just like raising children, you try to counteract the down-sides, nip them in the bud if at all possible, or at the least, understand the tendencies they can lead to and take measures to prevent the worst of them.

Like the American Founding Fathers tried to do by writing our Constitution, adding our Amendments, and providing the checks and balances between the moving parts of our government. If the gears of American government were allowed to work as designed, we'd be golden, wouldn't we?

But, back to national temperaments. Germany, in my estimation, is a choleric melancholic country. I bet you're not surprised, huh? Don't jump to unfavorable conclusions, though; some of my favorite people are choleric-melancholic! There are a lot of good things about this temperament! (Man are they organized!) But, in the case of a world crisis involving health concerns, it can be a pesky character to have to deal with.

Discussing this with Kevvy and Ina, we've concluded that part of the German problem is, ironically, that they tend to be rule followers. Germans are generally more health conscious as a nation than America. (You should have heard the German clerk at the Munich customs lecturing me about the 'garbage in the gut' Nutella I was bringing back! ) Put the health consciousness and the rule-following together with the dearth of true education regarding world history (for goodness' sake, their OWN history of totalitarian authoritarianism) -- and a tendency toward self-righteousness -- and you get the debacle we see today in this once proud and intelligent nation.

To wit, if you haven't seen it on the news, the German people are suffering massive lockdowns; you have to carry your "papers" with you everywhere to prove you are vaxxed or have 'recovered immunity,' and Germans are mask crazy. No one dares rebel against the muzzles like we do in America. They just accept it all. Outside of Church and my own family, I barely saw a single person's whole face during these last two months in Germany. Indoors, particularly, not a single smile to be seen anywhere. Seriously, out in public, no smiles. No pleasant exchanges. No joking around.

Granted, a German is less likely than some to banter with a stranger in the best of times -- but, goodness, if I didn't have personal friends and family over there, I would have come home thinking Germany a particularly dour and curmudgeonly country. Not normally true; the German people can be as welcoming and jolly as anyone, but lockdown, mandates and masks are likely to make the most sanguine among us grumpy! And force a melancholeric through all this... Yikes. They believe they are doing the right thing, mind you, following the rules to the letter, all the German "Karens" over there. And the 'experts' agree they are doing the right thing -- which makes it incontrovertible -- so there! -- but, by my observations, the German people are perfectly miserable these days. And if they are miserable, you should be, too.

Forward. I am home in America now.

After FOUR checkpoints to get out of the Munich airport, showing my "papers" repeatedly and having my picture taken twice (I felt like a convict! Like, 'should I have sewn a star on my sleeve, y'all?'). Anyway... Finally, I landed in America Thursday afternoon, blew through two quick customs gates at DIA -- wherein we were told, "put away all the paperwork; we just need to see your passport," and, thank God Almighty (and I don't mean that flippantly), I was free. There were mask rules in the Denver airport, but on the way through the concourse, Dan and I took ours off and no one said a word. Didn't even look at us funny.

Fast Forward again, to yesterday afternoon. I had to go grocery shopping, because it seems my husband was content to live off of tortillas and lunch meat while I was gone... Of course I went to the most economical and, incidentally, closest grocery store. You can guess where.

Free to be Brave and shop at Walmart!
Whether you like the politics or practices of this big box store
 or not, it is a unique fact of American life. Most regular people
do their shopping here, because it is economical and we have
families to feed. We do not apologize for that. And to be perfectly
clear, not all W-Marts are patronized by oddly-dressed asylum escapees.
The inner-city stores generally produce that anomaly. Fairly normal
folks at our friendly neighborhood W-mart!

Yep. People make fun of Walmart. I've made fun of Wal-Mart. I will never make fun of Wal-Mart again. Oh my. (I tear up thinking about it.) All those beautiful, homespun American faces!! And smiles!! And folks talking too loud!! (Europeans hate that!) And laughing!! And fussing at their kids!! It was BEAUTIFUL.

As I walked down an aisle (I was shopping by myself), hunting for Christmas wrapping paper, a random employee (with her mask pulled down to her chin, as all the employees' were -- corporate requirement, my guess, with a manager who doesn't feel convicted about it)... Anyway, the girl looked over at me as she passed and cheerily called out, "How ya doing?!" Be still my heart. That beautiful dear American! That just would not happen in Germany. Not a random greeting like that.

Then, I had a basket full of food that I self- checked (unlike a lot of folks I love self check! It's a great option -- one that doesn't exist in Germany!). I finished checking, paid, and pulled my cart back a few feet to put on my coat and get out my keys -- and realized I'd forgotten to check out a package of bottled waters I'd stowed underneath my buggy. (Doggone it! I hate when I do that!) But, at least I caught it before I got all the way out to the car and would have had to come all the way back!

As I was coming to this realization, though, a young man had taken my place at my checkout. Maybe 19 or 20 years old, he'd obviously just come from a day's work (looked like a farmhand, bless his heart!), and he had just one grocery item, a 12 pack of Budweiser. So I just stood there, waiting -- and after a minute, noticed that he'd noticed me hovering behind him. I told him I was just waiting to pay for the waters I'd missed when I was checking. And, you know what that dear sweet American lad did? He offered to buy my waters for me! (Where else but in America, I ask you?) I, of course, demurred, but we chatted for a minute while he finished his transaction, and as he left, he called out over his shoulder, "Now you have a blessed evening, ma'am!" (Channeling John Wayne, I tell you. Don't you love it? Where else but America?)

So, then, as I left the store, it was drizzling rain and chilly, verging on cold. I stood on the sidewalk outside the doors for a moment, orienting myself (trying to remember where my car was!) and couldn't help but overhear the jovial conversation between the Salvation Army bell-ringer (the guy was in a wheelchair and had a voice like Satchmo) and a grizzled elderly guy who asked him if he was staying warm and dry and mentioned that it was a miserable night to be sitting outside, ringing a bell. The bell ringer's response as I walked away: "Are you kidding? It's a BEAUTIFUL evening!" Sigh... My America.

But that's not all! I thought I was being such a smarty, buying a storage bin (because I wanted a new one to pack the fall decorations still up in the RV when I got home). I'd loaded all my bags of groceries inside the bin in my buggy, thinking that would make it easier to get it all into the car and then into the house when I got home... Ha! I'm such a dummy. It would have worked great if I were Captain America maybe... It was super heavy! But, as it turns out, I met Captain America in the parking lot. In a manner of speaking. The guy getting out of his car in the parking space next to mine saw my struggle and immediately hopped over to help. Smiling and chatting like it was a normal course of events. Because it was.

Because: America.

We have our faults. Good heavens, don't we, though? (Who doesn't?) But we are a choleric sanguine nation, as I see it. Generous to a fault and genial, we may seem embarrassingly redneck and loud at times, but true courtesy runs strong in our veins. We would give you the shirt off our backs if we thought you were in need, and that's not just talk. We are the most generous nation in the world, based on private donations of citizens -- and aid provided by our government. (See below* )Americans are inclined to be polite, too, in our own gregarious way -- out of consideration of others, yes, but also because, like any true sanguine, we want to be liked. It hurts us that Europeans are so snobbish toward us. (A little. Not enough to change our ways, mind you.) And, seriously, don't push us too far in your disregard, whether you are another nation or our own. That Choleric temperament will come right to the top.

Once we have realized the rules are taking advantage of us, or controverting our constitution in any way, we will kick those rules to the curb. And we will kick YOU to the curb, too, if you think you can force them on us against our will. You and your masks and your mandates.

Americans are waking up to the false-reality being force fed them by the government and media who will profit thereby. And you can see it plainly. We are DONE with the covid hysteria here in the red states -- where real America lives.

Having been in locked- down, sad and angry Europe for a couple months, the contrast is stark. There is backlash in Europe, but no real action (that I've seen) taking place to change things. They march. They kibitz over cigarettes and beer. But that's all that's obvious. It's kind of crazy. At least here, we have litigation, votes in the senate, and red-state governors who are sincerely trying to do what's best for their constituents! I'm so proud to be an American! There are fewer protests here in the states, but there's more actually being done!

I am very hopeful that we will soon pull out of this reset stupidity. Watch for the midterms next year and the red wave -- and pray that the distractions planned by the left aren't too painful to bear. But you watch: we're on our way out of the whirlpool. God willing, the rest of the world will follow!

In the meantime, please pray for our family, friends, and sister parishes overseas who are faced with mandatory vaccines this spring. Pray it doesn't come to that. Not everyone has family in the US to escape to -- and even those that do may be prevented because mandatory vax on the airlines could limit travel.

But this, too, while you're praying: thank God every day that you are an American. Gosh, I love the American people, the silly stubborn redneck patriots that they are. I miss my family in Bavaria, but, goodness sakes, I'm so glad to be home and see all your smiling faces!

* The annual private philanthropy in the United States represents 1.44% of the country’s GDP. This is almost twice as high as the 0.77% recorded in Canada. Next on the list come the UK (0.54%), Korea (0.50%), Singapore (0.39%), and Italy (0.30%). China’s private philanthropy makes for only 0.03% of the country’s GDP. Australia, Japan, and Germany have annual private philanthropy levels of 0.23%, 0.12%, and 0.17%, respectively. Find more stats on American giving here.
** Information on the Four Temperaments here.