Am I responsible for this?
Over the weekend, we went out to eat with some friends. I have no idea how we ended up talking about this, but the subject of Where’s Wally came up. One of the friends around the dinner table has been to the US and feels like he knows a lot about it. He knows enough to have noticed some of the differences and he has a tendency to ask me about these things. I think the first time I met him he asked me to explain why The World Series is so named even though it isn’t a global competition. I just said something about Canadian teams (I don’t even know if that is true) and changed the subject. I don’t know why it bothers me that he does this. I think it is the way he singles me out with this childish grin on his face like “I win” because he has discovered American arrogance and is the first person ever to be clever enough to ask me about it.
So, back to Where’s Wally. He turned to me and said “I’ve heard in America you call it something else, like changed the name.” I said “Yeah, it’s Waldo.” “Waldo? Why Waldo? Why did they do that?” (insert grin) All I could say in return was “Well, why Wally?” My point was, why is anything called what it is called, how was I to know? What I wish I said now was “I must have been sick the day we had that meeting.”
The whole thing was silly, and it is silly that I care. But these things bug me….
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Completely relate to this– that as the only American in a group setting, I have experienced this to.
DO I have all the answers as to why my Americans back home have done something annoying to the rest of the world/invented something silly/voted Bush in 4 years ago– I can go on about the things I have to explain!
And not only just having to defend America, I feel on the defensive a lot of time about being American too!
So, your post was so on target!