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THIS IS US
Rediscovering America on a 3,000 Mile Road Trip
Thirteen days from Boston to Los Angeles, with my mother and brother
I am from America. One Nation, Under God. I don’t live in America anymore though. I live in far-away countries that are sometimes under God, but mostly under skies, clouds, stars, the sun, the moon, and sometimes birds.
I decided to return home after nearly a decade for a road trip — a three-thousand-mile drive with my mother and brother in a Chrysler Seabreeze from Boston, Massachusetts (where I grew up) to L.A.
Sitting in the back of a car for long stretches opens the mind up to a lot of weird thoughts. About three hours after we set out from Massachusetts, mine was this: People are like eggs, all being flavored in whatever way makes them most palatable to whoever’s plate they’re on. For example, I am a person. If I were an egg, I’d be a fried egg, like my mother, who sat shotgun. My brother, who led the expedition, would also, likely, be a fried egg: salt, no pepper — the three of us.
We left our home. We passed overnight into Ohio. From the window of our hotel, across the highway, casting a shadow over row after row of rundown housing units, we saw a billboard. This is what the billboard said:
