“They’ve all come to look for America …” — Paul Simon 1967
Back when I was in high school, one of my favorite music groups was Simon & Garfunkel. On their “Bookends” album, they performed a song simply called “America.” The song was about an actual and spiritual journey across America taken by Paul Simon and his former girlfriend, Kathy.
The song was written in turbulent times and expressed a longing to obtain a genuine understanding of what America is all about. Google’s artificial intelligence explains that the song is about searching for meaning among disillusionment and the complexities of the American experience.
Today, like then, American life is full of complexities, divisions and disillusionment. So, like Paul and Kathy 60 years ago, in July my wife and I set out to see America. We traveled through 15 states in 15 days without setting foot in an airplane.
Our journey started at the New-hall Metrolink station, where we took Metrolink to Union Station in downtown LA. We then boarded the Amtrak Southwest Chief for a 43-hour excursion to Chicago.
If you have not taken a cross-country journey on Amtrak, you are missing quite a treat. The accommodations are outstanding, the food is quite good and the service is phenomenal. The best part is that, from the observation car, you see a cavalcade of Americana pass before your eyes. You also get an opportunity to meet fellow passengers from various backgrounds and share experiences with them. The slower pace of the train allows for a more fulfilling and contemplative experience.
Downtown Chicago is a cosmopolitan city that is generally clean and welcoming. We also spent some time in Naperville, near where our son lives. Naperville is Illinois’ answer to Santa Clarita — a suburb with lots of amenities. Saturday night in Naperville is like Wednesday night on Van Nuys Boulevard used to be. Residents, mostly baby boomers, bring out their 1960s/1970s muscle cars to rev the engines.
We then drove our rental car northwest toward national monuments. We drove through the cornfields of South Dakota, stopping in Sioux Falls and Rapid City. When we arrived in Rapid City, where the nearby Sturgess Motorcycle Festival was getting started, thousands of motorcyclists were enjoying the festivities. The atmosphere was jovial.
We visited Mount Rushmore, but the face of the mountain was hidden in the clouds as a light rain fell. Then, when we got to the base of the mountain, the rain suddenly stopped and hole in the clouds emerged, allowing the sunlight to illuminate the faces of the four presidents. It was a truly awesome moment that sent shivers up my spine. After leaving Mount Rushmore, we visited the Crazy Horse monument, which told the native Americans’ side of American history.
We then drove through Wyoming and Montana before visiting family in Boise. Although Idaho is clearly a red state, it clearly resembles California. The final leg of our journey took us south through Nevada to return home.
On our sojourn, we saw many slices of American life, from cosmopolitan Chicago to the rural farmlands to the vast openness of the American West. While differences certainly existed, all parts were distinctively American.
Since we returned, America has clearly experienced an uptick in divisions and disillusionment. Despite that, I have come to believe most Americans have common ideals and beliefs but get their information from different media sources, many of which reinforce negativism. When I was in college, I took a sociology class that taught Marshall McLuhan’s concept that the medium is the message. Essentially, McLuhan postulated that the form of communication has a greater impact than the communicated content.
Messages are seemingly communicated differently in cosmopolitan areas like Chicago than in rural areas like South Dakota. So, despite America’s ongoing greatness, issues are perceived differently, causing a vast divergence of opinions. Furthermore, everyone believes their perception is reality because the capabilities of today’s media far outstrip what McLuhan saw during his lifetime.
When Paul Simon wrote his song, “America,” our nation was divided by the Vietnam War, civil rights and other important issues of the day. Today, those days are frequently romanticized, but those divisions were intense. In order to gain a better grasp of America’s essence, Paul Simon and his girlfriend embarked on a journey to look for the real America.
It is out there if you look for it, and if you do, you might find some surprisingly good things, as individual perceptions blend into reality.
Jim de Bree is a Valencia resident.
