Letter of Recommendation: ‘Passport to Your National Parks’

I cringe at the thought that I might be patriotic, but the next thing I know, I’m trying on a Cheesehead hat at the airport in Milwaukee and thinking about how happy I am to live in a nation so vast and idiosyncratic. This, at least, is how I like to think of America — less a set of monolithic ideals than a junk drawer full of halftime shows, regional-style pizzas, feuds over what exactly to call “soda” and snippets of marches by John Philip Sousa. But that sort of patriotism, while good enough as entertainment, offers little comfort when I’m up late at night consuming my 25th hour of news. Lately, my America has felt too vast and fragmented, and fixating on regional curiosities like state-fair butter sculptures and St. Paul sandwiches only exacerbates this crisis of faith. I’ve been searching for new ways to keep liking this country, meaningful ways that don’t feel like work.