I have extreme ambivalence about the United States, which grows more and more ambivalent every year. That might seem like a contradiction but it's clear in my head. In a country of extremes I feel increasingly positive about the good stuff and exasperatingly annoyed with all that's infuriating about the country. The latter is well documented and hardly needs to be repeated. For the good I'm reminded of what an acquaintance of mine said about Americans years ago - "The ones who are cool are really cool because they have to put up with so much crap." I think of that when I think of the "good" Americans. John Cassavetes, and Scorsese, Obama, Joan Didion, Vonnegut,  and Dr. King just off the top of my head. There's also George Saunders who I spent part of the day with listening to a podcast in which he praised another writer. He's the product of a certain kind of blue collar America and has spent a lot of his time (willingly and otherwise) with the half of America we confidently point to when we want to dismiss it or mock (with good reason a lot of the time) the mind-numbing "Greatest country in the World" mantra. As a result of time spent in the purgatory of mini-mall red state America, Saunders is a pearl created after repeated contact with irritants like bigotry ignorance and the dehumanizing excesses of capitalism. But it's his humility that strikes me always. And his awe for the beautiful things hidden in the everyday that he has nothing to do with. And the ability to glean humour from humiliation. I once asked him a question during an online event and was struck by how respectfully he answered, which is emblematic of who he is. He has achieved his success incrementally and honestly and is genuinely aware of how difficult life is for many people and how miraculous it is to create beauty in such circumstances.