October 11, 2019

"As we Americans celebrate our diversity, so we must affirm our unity if we are to remain the 'one nation' to which we pledge allegiance. Such great national symbols and meccas as the Liberty Bell, the battlefields on which our independence was won and our union preserved, the Lincoln Memorial, the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and numerous other treasures of our national park system belong to all of us, both legally and spiritually. These tangible evidences of our cultural and natural heritage help make us all Americans." -Edwin C. Bearss

Here I am. I am an American, and I see this country for what she is. I see power and promise. Progress and regression. Beauty and decay. I see the color of diversity in her people, her landscapes, her environments, and her cultures. I see the dignified and the downtrodden. I’ve heard the languages of two dozen nations spoken under that star-spangled banner – all come to see America. I have seen borders and boundaries, both real and imagined. I have stepped through the thresholds of presidents’ homes and slaves’ shacks. I’ve walked the bloodiest battlefields where wildflowers now bloom. I have seen her across the water, from the air, and deep underground. I have driven her roads until the pavement runs out – then driven some more. I see pride, despair, hope, renewal, and reverence for that one nation – one from many. This great collective, this jumble of parts strewn hither and yon, all united by one identity. American. All of that and more are reflected back to us through these parks. These totems, talisman, and tangible icons are our definition. They reflect us, we reflect them. They are our guidebook for how to be an American. What it means. What it requires. All our responsibility to know and understand. To revere, protect and steward forward for the next generations.

I have less than three months before the end of my trip. Less than 80 parks still to visit. Only now have I really started to reflect on all that has happened this year, all I have seen and done. This great 419-piece puzzle of America is starting to take shape. Each day, another piece or two. All fitted together. All connected. No moment in history is disconnected from another. All part of the whole. Just as every park is a collection of the tiniest details. The mushrooms and lichen. The iron in the sandstone. The salmon in the river that fuels an entire ecosystem. They are all connected. It may take me years to decompress this adventure, to absorb every detail, every thought and emotion. All I have learned and now understand. All I have unlearned – a history corrected. There are so many takeaways from this journey. So much I have gained now. My foundations buttressed. My awareness expanded. And, my identity now broadened. I used to think of myself as a St. Louisan. Sometimes, Midwesterner. I still embrace and value those identities, but they only represent parts of a whole. Now, and in a way I no longer take for granted, I am an American.