Alcan Dragon Boat Festival, Vancouver — June 22, 2005

My plan for this evening was to process last weekend’s photos, but alas, I had to face the fact that I don’t live in a self-cleaning apartment and my clothes aren’t of the self-laundering variety (when will the scientists get around to inventing these???). Oh well, there goes another evening, but at least it was productive.

I thought I would share a couple of passages from the book I mentioned recently, Timbit Nation, which I finished the other day. (I highly recommend this book, whether you’re Canadian or not, at the very least as an entertaining travelogue.)

Having watched some of Chalk River’s best scientists head south, the question of leaving Canada remained a sore point for Kyle. He had grown up in Canada and gone to a Canadian university. He did not want to abandon his country or be seen to be abandoning his country. Yet he had a more continental view than his parents’ generation, a more global view, really. In his mind, he could be as Canadian living in Dallas as in Deep River.

“Most of my friends are patriotic,” he explained. “Patriotism doesn’t mean having to give up something or give up opportunities.”

I had not heard this before. Kyle viewed Canada as an ethnic group as much as a nation, a land that did more than receive people. It originated them. This did not follow the most commonly accepted definition of ethnicity, based on a common heritage, distinct language, original culture and occasionally a shared physical trait. None of these could be claimed by Canada. But ethnicities also come with their own state of mind — their own values, world views, customs and traditions — and Canadians had plenty of those. Kyle felt he could go anywhere in the world, for any length of time, and would remain Canadian: a Canadian-Texan, a Canadian-Briton, a Canadian-Singaporean. Even if he were a citizen of the world, his Canadian blood would flow through him. It was an intriguing thought, for a nation of immigrants and aboriginals.

– Timbit Nation, a Hitchhiker’s View of Canada, by John Stackhouse (p. 167-168)

Patriotism isn’t something you necessarily feel strongly about until you leave the country, at least for me. Or, you feel patriotic but that patriotism hasn’t been challenged in a direct way. Sometimes it may even start out to be nothing more than a vague notion of cultural identity, the difference between what is familiar and what is not — until some other country (or countries) begins to feel familiar, and then patriotism takes on a different form or strength. Now the familiar isn’t always more comfortable, or practical, or even desired. It’s interesting to me how expatriation can make you learn about yourself, your country, and how the world views your country; suddenly your beliefs and value systems are examined more closely because foreigners become an item of curiosity.

I’ve been a longer-term expat in three countries, and had vastly different experiences in each of them. I’m not planning to head off again in the short-term, but my expat days are definitely not over. There’s lots of learning to do.