Coming in from the Cold

I have not died.  Nor have I returned to the United States.  Full-time employment as an editor has left little time for blog writing.  But a couple of events have prompted me to dig out my old password and pay a visit to currentsbetweenshores:

1. Barack

When I first started this blog four years ago, I had an extraordinary feeling of hope. An American kid of an immigrant, a kid like me, who went to good schools, had every opportunity in the world, yet grappled with identity, became someone I never imagined people like us ever could.

Barack Obama was more than just a black president to me, he symbolized who I believed America and the world would become; greatness that comes when races, cultures and mentalities mix.

I couldn't hear often enough that he was a son of a Kenyan and a mother of a white woman from Kansas.  I was raising kids that looked like Barack Obama and, finally, the world was handing them a role model.

Admittedly, Barack Obama has not been a perfect president but he has been a revolutionary one (healthcare reform, education) who has stood up, with grace, to an unprecedentedly racist, absurdly critical and vicious Republican congress.

Barack is riding on a different platform than four years ago but he is still the first president who is, to me, the most familiar, trustworthy, capable and worth his word.

2. A Buschgirl Fan

I recently received an email from a black woman with Ghanian parents who was raised, in of all places, Bonn.  Bonn used to be the capital of West Germany and hardly the happening, almost-metropolitan city of Berlin, where she now lives.

This young woman thanked me for writing Buschgirl because it rang true to her.  The experiences I had as an American were no different than the ones she had, despite having been born and raised in Germany.

Her email reminded me why I started all of this, why I felt it important to include these experiences in a book and, at one time, frequently blogged about it.

3. An ad

This ad on the Swiss railway ("Against Homesickness") was sent to me by a German man who asked, "Don't you think this ad is weird?"

My answer?  Of course, it is.  Why does a woman who looks like this have to call home someplace OUTSIDE of northern, German-speaking Europe?  (please refer to number 2).

What does that mean?

Buschgirl is back.