Dual(ing)

This is in response to Boulder + Bloodfruit

When I was ten years old, in 1998, my mom and stepdad and I moved from Morden, Manitoba, Canada, to Eugene, Oregon, USA. I’ve gone back to Canada several times a year since, as my entire family’s still there, excepting my stepsiblings who joined us in Oregon years later.

There’ve been certain times since 1998, while in either country, that I've felt homeless, lost, a half-citizen of two countries, neither of which quite fit. This is, of course, unadulterated bullshit.

A closer reality is the opposite: I actually have two homes, and two countries I can fit into my identity and claim privilege to, and most of the time, “homeless” is not as adequate as a description of my nationalistic feelings as is, “this is fucking sweet”.

As long as I’m a nomad, I’m fine. If America ever elects Bush III and reinstates the draft, I can jaunt back up to Canada. If Stephen Harper ever guts the social health system, I can merrily tear up my Social Insurance Number card and set up shop in Massachusetts. And if global warming nukes the planet and turns Oregon into Waterworld, I can make a new home in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where real estate prices, by the way, are marvelously low. And I can vote in both countries. It’s a good life.

Perceptions of countries are marvelously simplistic. Canada is cold, America is warm. Canada is safe, America is dangerous. Canada is full of nice people who will offer you freshly-tapped maple syrup, America is full of douchebags who will tell you to go fuck yourself. America has unparalleled military might, Canada has unparalleled canoes. To the Americans, Canada is a big Minnesota, to the Canadians, America is a big Calgary (or Toronto, depending).

The list goes on and ranges from half-truths to complete lies, and both countries can take on the same traits if you get ambiguous enough. For example, one country is full of tough pioneers who could beat up grizzly bears with their bare hands, while the other country is full of dough-bellied cowards.

One perception seems to be consistent: Canada is unchanging, America is dynamic. America is always the leaking, splitting, throbbing entity that reinvents itself. The world hears of its elections, riots, crimes, discoveries, and falls in love and hate with the country over and over again, with its successes, its disasters. While Canada is static, stoic. Hard, unchanging. Unrevolutionary. The small boulder pressing on the gigantic blood fruit.