Being a Brit living in the US, I’ve never really felt excited about July 4^th as a holiday. It’s a bit hard to celebrate American Independence from the controlling “bad guy” culture, the United Kingdom, when you’re from that culture. Luckily, our two nations are best of friends now, but still, it’s a wee bit awkward. Furthermore, July 4th is traditionally a day of intense patriotism, and I’ve never been an intensely patriotic person, having been born in India to a Persian mother and Scottish father, brought up in Scotland, Canada and England, then having studied Japanese and lived in Japan, and now here I am  in the US. During the World Cup or Olympics, there’s no one team I can whole-heartedly support. Fortunately, I guess, July 4^th falls during summer vacation here and I have often been traveling during the holiday so have avoided having any awkwardness. In fact, a couple of years ago, my husband David, son Theo and I were visiting my father in Cambridge on July 4^th and when we were shopping that day, Theo insisted on buying a Union Jack flag and waving it around as we walked through Cambridge. I had to giggle. He had no idea why.

Continue reading July 4, 2015 →