Citizenship

I was fortunate to have been born in the U.S. Had I been born a month later, I would have been born in the Philippines. Which would have been fine. Maybe then I wouldn't have struggled so hard to learn Spanish. :-) Later, my family moved to England. 

So while I can legitimately claim birthright citizenship in the U. S., the fact remains that I have more often seen myself in much broader terms as a citizen of the world.  Indeed, one of the first hymns I remember learning as a child is "This is My Song, O God of All the Nations" with words by Lloyd Stone and set to a tune composed by Jan Sibelius. 

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is,

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.

But other hearts in other lands are beating,

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine. 

So when I am asked where I am from, I will most often reply by saying something like, "Well, I was born in California" but then quickly follow that up by explaining to folks how I didn't actually grow up there and that I'm actually "from" many places, so as to maybe forestall any awkward conversations about a place in the states that I actually know very little about.

All of which is to say that I think we sometimes place too much emphasis upon where people are from rather than to recognize how we are all actually citizens of a much wider world and--this is important!--to act accordingly. Perhaps then, maybe, just maybe, we would be in a better position from which to tackle the really great issues affecting all of us, namely climate change, disease, poverty, and so forth.