Comments on: What’s in a Name? http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/07/whats-in-a-name/ Place. Limits. Liberty. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:56:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: D.W. Sabin http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/07/whats-in-a-name/#comment-8684 D.W. Sabin Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:28:22 +0000 http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=4966#comment-8684 .."As Americans we don't generally define ourselves by where we are from but by what we do". Well, given "what do you do?" is the standard greeting at a cocktail party of strangers, perhaps you are right but again, this is perhaps more a matter of those Americans who are Strangers in Suburbia. Conversations don't generally get too all-fired exciting when someone launches into the pleasures of their service job along yon strip. As for me, I've been away from the shadow of the Wasatch for as long as I was there growing up and gettin ejoocated and I still refer to myself as a "non-mormon from Utah". Even with pioneer Saints on the maternal side, I cling to the idea of the outsider in the promised land. Go ahead, call me a reprobate...I am a member of the permanent opposition. Not quite a sociopath mind you , just a recreational sociopath. ..”As Americans we don’t generally define ourselves by where we are from but by what we do”. Well, given “what do you do?” is the standard greeting at a cocktail party of strangers, perhaps you are right but again, this is perhaps more a matter of those Americans who are Strangers in Suburbia. Conversations don’t generally get too all-fired exciting when someone launches into the pleasures of their service job along yon strip. As for me, I’ve been away from the shadow of the Wasatch for as long as I was there growing up and gettin ejoocated and I still refer to myself as a “non-mormon from Utah”. Even with pioneer Saints on the maternal side, I cling to the idea of the outsider in the promised land. Go ahead, call me a reprobate…I am a member of the permanent opposition. Not quite a sociopath mind you , just a recreational sociopath.

]]> By: David Vanderveen (from the peat bogs) http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/07/whats-in-a-name/#comment-8679 David Vanderveen (from the peat bogs) Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:14:54 +0000 http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=4966#comment-8679 Good to see such eloquence from an American with Ferwerdian roots! The American desire to create our own universe does seem to clash with the historic and unwinding evidence that DNA is a significant contributor to who we are. Both seem important. Like other 'veenarbeiders' or peat harvesters (see: http://godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=195), my DNA seems to enjoy wandering (now living in Laguna Beach, CA), but cannot resist returning to both the West Coast of Michigan where I was raised and Dutch/Frisian soil and waterways. We just returned from a week with our boys and their friends to the exotic Midwest and there does seem to be a significant importance to both leaving/creating a future AND returning to one's roots. Good to see such eloquence from an American with Ferwerdian roots! The American desire to create our own universe does seem to clash with the historic and unwinding evidence that DNA is a significant contributor to who we are. Both seem important.

Like other ‘veenarbeiders’ or peat harvesters (see: http://godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=195), my DNA seems to enjoy wandering (now living in Laguna Beach, CA), but cannot resist returning to both the West Coast of Michigan where I was raised and Dutch/Frisian soil and waterways. We just returned from a week with our boys and their friends to the exotic Midwest and there does seem to be a significant importance to both leaving/creating a future AND returning to one’s roots.

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