Agreeing with Sarah

Agreeing with Sarah Vowell
Although Sarah is an American, she seems to fancy the Canadian way of life. Can you blame her? They seem all kinds of perfect, and if you take a step back to realize, who are the only people you never hear about in any negative way? Yes, Canadians, or as Sarah will say, Mounties. Americans for the most part feel as if solving problems mean war, while Canada simply feels that a treaty is a decent way to handle the situation. If you think about it, they have a good way of dealing with problems, if they have any at all. Even in the earlier days, they felt that war would not solve anything and I am going to have to agree. I hate everything about war.

I don’t feel that it is completely pointless, but I do feel that it could be dealt in other ways. Resulting in a major loss of money and lives, I’ll stick with the ‘Mounties’ on this one and say three cheers for treaties. One other major difference between us and Canada would have to be the fact that they are true when they say everyone is treated the same. Everyone knows that as much as we say, “Everyone is created equal” it will never be completely true. Yes, that is an opinion, but who really feels that every single person has the same rights and is treated the same? As for their take on conformity, that is a different story. That is the only topic I will have to disagree on with my fellow Canadians. If it wasn’t for unconformity we would not have some of the things we have today. For example, how do you think women got the right to vote? If it wasn’t for individualism, women would still be house wives and house wives only. I think it is perfectly fine to agree to disagree rather than everyone having the same opinion on everything. At times it can cause problems but this country isn’t perfect, no country is, although Canada comes awkwardly close. They have their way of life and we have ours. I cannot completely disagree with Sarah because the Canadians have a good thing going but I was born and raised in American and I will stand by what my country decides.

My Boy Chris.

Just like everyone else that Chris has met; or should I say Alex, I like him. I think he was a smart individual who knew what he wanted in life and knew just how to achieve it. Unlike everybody else, his idea of the American dream was very non conformist. Most people will agree that their American dream is one in which you succeed to the fullest, but what makes each different is what success really means to each individual. One might say making as much money as they possibly can is one way of living the American dream while others; just like Alex’s way of thinking, is the complete opposite; Working hard and not living by anyone else’s way.
Although he says he does not want to end up like his parents, I don’t really understand why he wanted to rough it out in the wild to the extreme. A lot of people feel the same way as him but I know that is not the first thing I would think of if I just didn’t want to end up like the family. Even though I find his adventure insane; I give him a lot of credit for doing what he wanted because I don’t think I could ever be as brave as he was.
Curious as to what some people thought the definition of the American Dream was; I looked it up on urbandictionary.com, and found numerous results. One was a long, essay written definition, but the one I really liked was short and sweet. The American Dream: “Getting paid a whole lot to do not a whole hell of a lot.” I am going to have to say that pretty much sums it up. Why do people do what they do? To achieve what they feel is the American dream, and to most, that is as follows; make a lot of money by not doing a lot. Sounds easy, but not everyone gets their dream handed to them. I think it depends on the person whether or not they think they have gotten hold on their dream. I think it’s safe to say that some people have reached their, what used to be, unreachable.