Hi, INOBU! Is New York City insular? I lived there four years and reached the point where it seemed like if the subway didn't go there, it didn't exist. I remember when I first came to New York City in 1960, there was a photo in one of the New York papers that had the caption, "Kennedy visits the Midwest." The photograph was taken in Pennsylvania! For you folks across the sea, Pennsylvania is only two states away... you can drive to Philadelphia in two and a half hours. But, the caption made sense in New York City. the Midwest is as unknown as central Europe. When my wife and I go out to Wisconsin and we tell people we know around here in Connecticut (we live an hour and a half drive from New York City) many of them have no idea where Wisconsin is other than it's out there in the Midwest, somewhere. (it's pretty much in the center of the country and the western border of Wisconsin is bounded by the Mississippi River. Someone made the point that if you haven't traveled a lot, you're bound to be focused on home. That's certainly true. I've seen most of the United States, and when I read about something happening in another part of the country I can relate to it personally. It's much like learning names of people. If I go into a crowd and am introduced to thirty people, I will only remember the names of people I've spoken to for awhile and feel like I've gotten to know.

Are we self-centered? Being human, yes we are. But I don't think that many of us are arrogant about it. There is a "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere"(from the song New York, New York) attitude in some New Yorkers that is exageratedly self-centered, but I wouldn't even characterize "New Yorkers" as being arrogant. Maybe Mets fans.. :-)

A couple of years ago, my wife and I went to Ghana and the Ivory Coast. When you go out to fairly remote villages, all the kids want anything "American." They'd trade you something that took them hours to make for a cheap t-shirt if it had anything on it that said it was from America. I was wearing a baseball cap, and I think I could have traded it for a sculpture that would go for $100 dollars here. One kid wanted it really badly, so I just took it off my head and gave it to him.

There's a difference being self-centered and being arrogant. I'd say that most people everywhere are focused on their daily life, and don't think a whole lot about people and places they don't know. I feel as bewildered about places in Europe as many Europeans might feel about where places are in the United States, because other than having gone to Paris and London, Europe is a map to me, not a place I've experienced. When I send mail to European 'Catter friends of mine, I cna't figure out why there's so many numbers and names in it, and what I means. Sometimes, I'm not even sure which word is for the city or town. So, I get out a map, or look it up on the internet. I like to place friends in a setting. Photos are even greater.

I think that you'd find most Americans critical enough of their own Country (even after 9/11) to believe that we're not as smug and self-congratulatory as it might appear to some. Every country gets labeled. Parisians are unfriendly, southerners and Midwesterners(in the United States are "hicks"... people who are dumb and insular)... and on it goes. I wrote a song for a friend who said that she would never move to Wisconsin because you couldn't buy Brie there... and Wisconsin is the cheese center of the United States.

Wrote another song with the line "We are drowning in the details of life." I'm sure folks in England, or Hawaii are drowning in the details of life. But, I think us Amuricans are a friendly sort. Just have to get to know you.

Jerry