This essay was originally written three years ago and recently revisited. I clarified the language while leaving its essence. I’m exploring what kind of country we are still choosing to become, rather than what we claim to be.

In what kind of country do you want to live?

I dream of a country — the United States — that respects and supports the interdependence of all beings in nature. Here, when I use the word “country,” I mean the United States not as a brand or identity, but as a shared civic experiment — one still being shaped.

A country that respects and supports how each of us practices spirituality.
A country that provides equal opportunity and systemic support for all people to pursue economic security and build generational wealth.
A country where independent, critical thinking and emotional regulation are intentionally taught, modeled, and practiced.
A country that maintains a practical and sustainable path to citizenship for all who choose to call this nation home.

The human species did not originate on this continent; we all owe our presence to those who traveled here from other lands. Furthermore, we haven’t been here very long. The oldest mountains and river systems began forming hundreds of millions of years ago. Other mammals have existed for tens of millions of years. Human beings have been here for less than twenty thousand.

This means modern humans have occupied North America for only a speck of the time its natural systems have existed. Even within the mammalian story, our presence represents only the final sliver of the timeline. For perspective, if we compress the continent’s natural history into a single year, modern humans appear in the final half hour before midnight on December 31.

Accordingly, we are newcomers. As such, we carry a responsibility to listen and learn. We have much to absorb from history, and we will progress by doing better when we know better.

In February 2023, while speaking in Poland, U.S. President Joe Biden said it is time to decide what kind of world we want to build. Referring to the coalition supporting Ukraine, he said:

“We need to take the strength and capacity of this coalition and apply it to lifting up — lifting up the lives of people everywhere, improving health, growing prosperity, preserving the planet, building peace and security, treating everyone with dignity and respect. That’s our responsibility. The democracies of the world have to deliver it for our people.”

Yes — that is the kind of democracy I support: of, by, and for the people it represents. A culture of shared governance that lifts all — advancing peace, security, dignity, respect, and prosperity for us and the ecosystem we depend on.

As today’s youth say, “it’s been a minute” — and yet, in geologic time, that is all it has been. There is still so much to learn and to live. I dream of a country with “a vision of a hopeful future and a realistic means to get there.” (Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, 2/24/2023.)

What kind of country — and world — do you want to help build?

My “American Dream”

Winter Light in the Civic Garden