The Gospel Of Being American

Eight (8) years ago on this day (24th January 2013), I took my oath to become a U.S. Citizen. Today I can’t help but think about a quote that stuck with me, who said it, unfortunately, did not. The quote goes something like “everyone in the world wants to be American, except Americans.” Of course, this was a statement I encountered at what seemed like the climax of a toxic rollercoaster ride of a relationship with a President and government no one wanted to be in courtship with, but we somehow found ourselves still searching for more timber in an attempt to keep the fire burning. 

To say the result of the 2020 election was a sigh of relief is definitely an understatement. For a year filled with intensified birth pains from Mother Earth, whole forests were literally burning nonstop, a global pandemic embarked on a deadly world tour, and protests for racial injustice took to the streets in all 50 states and around the world. And the future of what the next four years or decade of a U.S. Government could look like, all truly screamed the end is not only near but truly imminent. So with this time and uncertainty, the only thing this immigrant turned American wanted in life was to get out — by any means necessary! But to get out and go where? 

“everyone in the world wants to be American, except Americans.”

Saturday, November 7th, 2020, brought news that despite a year (and you can even add four long years) of a collective global ‘WTF?’, the streets were lit up again, this time not by forests fires, but a global celebratory moment that the end was soon to come for the 45th President of the United States and all that he represented. To some, when they hear this quote “everyone in the world wants to be American, except Americans”, they might 100% get it or they might 100% want to contest it. I guess maybe that’s the beauty of seeing The Art of Perspective. For me, everything I observed was the absolute worst thing, yet to my Congolese immigrant parents, things could be even worse. 

So when I think of that quote, I think of what Ali, in HBO’s Euphoria, told Rue, during a heated exchange on if God truly does exist then why must we still experience deep and seemingly unfair suffering? Whereas, Ali beautifully remarks “You’ve got to believe in the poetry because everything in life will fail you including you…” In a way, to be an ‘American’ or to desire to become one, is to grapple with this truly duplicitous state of being. The marketing and branding strategy deployed by the Founding Fathers, owners of enslaved Africans, was both perfect in its ideals yet truly contradictory in its actions, circa 1619 till perhaps 1964. 

To be a proud American is to truly be almost like two people at once, saying one thing but then doing something very different, even contradictory. And who would have thought, a former Reality TV Show host turned 45th President, would be the toxic courtship needed to force us to face and see our own duplicity?  As I write this, we’ve now had 3 Wednesdays in 2021, Insurrection, Impeachment (#2), and Inauguration. Overcoming the toxicity of the last four (4) years, which festered and further exposed the unhealed wounds and deep-rooted history of a divided nation, coupled with the uncertainty of the remittances of 2020, won’t be a small feat.

“You’ve got to believe in the poetry because everything in life will fail you including you…”

However, doing so could truly be the only way we make it out and get out alive together and perhaps maybe even become better for it by daring to try.  For daring to see the true nature of our being, reimagining the potential of our existence, and refusing to accept its duplicitous hold on our lives. Today, like all other times in history, to align ideals and action is to channel our collective superpowers to believing in the poetry. Because even in darkness and duplicity, we must believe that truth, light, and all its beauty can always be found even if we might need a moment with our feelings, a moment to get out of our heads, and a moment to wipe our tear-filled eyes.

In doing so, in believing in the poetry, is to believe everything in life will fail you including you at some point, yet we still rise to pursue the warm embrace of joy once again. To do so is not only the most American thing we can do, but it’s the most human thing, and truly our greatest superpower. 

What does the Gospel Of Being American mean for you? And most importantly, what does it sound like?

Listen to my full Spotify playlist “The Gospel Of Being American” below!

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