What is your nation?:

Interesting article in the NYT Magazine today about the Jews of Ireland and how hard it is for them to fit in there. Many of the younger people have left because they want to be somewhere where it's culturally normal to be a Jew.

This is something that resonates a lot with me. I don't know where I'm from, I don't feel like I fit in exactly anywhere. I can't go back to Atlanta; that's not home, nor really has it ever been. Much as I love Chicago, I'm still in many ways an outsider here (it's soda, not pop). Cleveland is a nice city, but it's not my city. And Ireland is a lifetime away.

I have thought about getting Irish citizenship, moving there. Sometimes I think that the shared memories are enough, that I could be a part of that country. But-- but I am an American. My family and friends are here and my memories are here. I don't want to give up my past, not for a country in which I'll still be an outsider.

So I'm stuck in some sort of limbo, living places that I love but not really feeling that they love me back. Knowing that I will always be a little bit of on the outside looking in. In London, I was the American, in Chicago the southerner, in Atlanta the Irish Catholic.

If someone were to ask me in a bar what my nation is, I would not be able to answer.