American Diversity in Athens

Last night we ventured down to an area just below the Acropolis for a pre-dinner drink and some food. After stopping at Bretos for a beer, we walked up to a restaurant with a nice outdoor garden directly underneath the most eastern corner of the Acropolis.

It was not a great epicurean experience, but the night air was wonderful, we had a family or two of cats and kittens to entertain us, and besides one other table, basically private dining for most of the evening.

The other table was a table of five. We discovered they were American by the simple act of eavesdropping on their conversation. Now, five Americans in a taverna in Athens does not a blog-entry make, but after observing them and thinking about it, I thought, "Well, maybe it does!".

You see, they were a veritibal sundry of Americans. Three guys and two girls. One guy definitely of Middle Eastern descent, probably Iranian, another guy Chinese descent. One girl of unknown origin, but guessing would say Latino and Asian or Inuit mix, looked somewhat Polynesian, but different. One gay guy (whitebread) and one girl that if you close your eyes and think of Iowa, this is what you would see. All middle-aged. All Americans.

Which led me to think, if they were five people from Japan (or China, or Korea, etc), Russia, Germany, India or almost anywhere, you would know. They would be pretty much uniform.

Which makes me celebrate our country, America, where so many different races, religions, sexual preferences, and cultures can co-exist if not in perfect harmony, at least without blowing each other up or civil war. And, in the whole scheme of things, based on how youthful our country is, we're doing it quickly compared to a lot of the world.

Plus, they kept calling the Acropolis (which we were RIGHT underneath) the Apocalypse, which is damn funny. Not only diverse, but humorous.

So Happy Birthday America, a day early, but heartfelt.