As we approach the holidays, I suspect many of us will find time to travel and reflect. With that in mind, I wanted to share a Saturday discussion prompt that I originally wrote the first month that I launched America, America.
I grew up in and around Chicago. I was accustomed to the tabletop-flat landscapes of the Midwest. After grad school, my first newspaper job was writing for the Beaver County Times, a 60,000-circulation daily in Western Pennsylvania just outside Pittsburgh.
I loved being there—the rolling hills, the rivers, the distant hum of trains cutting through the back hills and along the water’s edge, even the massive steel mills belching smoke and fire at night, harking back to the harsh but poetic days of the industrial revolution that built modern America. This was the 1980s: It was a tough time for local residents as many of the mills were closing and steel jobs were disappearing.
At first I wrote about the troubled economic times, but after a while most of my feature writing for the Sunday paper sought to buoy battered spirits. I especially remember riding in a truck with one of the last home-delivery milkmen and in a locomotive with the conductor of a freight train. I still remember how inspiring that place was for me—the physical environment, the resilient people, the history—and how much I relished learning about the life there.
We often focus here on the troubles our country, our democracy, is facing. (And we must.) But this week’s question seeks inspiration: Where do you find American beauty? Please tell about a place or a community or an experience that captures that positive feeling: Share a memory that can remind us why we love this country.
As always, I look forward to reading your comments—and for this growing community to share with each other. Please do be respectful in your remarks.
If you’re not already, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for just $5 a month or $50 a year. This helps sustain the work of America, America, keeps nearly all the content free for everyone and gives you full access to the comments sections.
*Photo of Pittsburgh by Shunyu Fan via Getty Images.
As a Canadian I find American Beauty in your traditional guiding light throughout the world.
There is no alternative to the USA ... including the EU ...as no one is willing to step up and pay with money and blood for kindness and order in the world ... that no one can match.
That’s why it’s so troubling when we see such a small minority, causing so much trouble for the majority of your wonderful population... taking advantage of the fairness in your system to do harm.
Never bet against the USA, and it’s kindness and compassion, that’s what I’m banking on going into 2024.
We are all with you guys ... Most people say nothing, but are deeply grateful. Just be aware of that.
Have a very merry Christmas from Canada ... to our wonderful friends and neighbours in the USA ❤️
Along the rocky shore in Lubec, Maine, there's a point of land called West Quoddy Head that juts out into the sea. It is the easternmost point in the USA. The craggy shoreline is beautiful, especially when the surf is crashing into the rocks below. But there's another type of beauty when you stand there at the very edge of our nation, more of a feeling than a scenic vista. Face westward and you picture the vast diversity our land and people in front of you. You reflect on the inspiring values that shaped our nation. You feel the power of our accomplishments throughout our short history, as well as our ongoing and often painful struggles to become a "more perfect Union." Face east and you imagine the potential of what this nation can become, especially if we keep building on our founding ideals and values. You feel a mix of pride, sadness, fear, and hope. With all its flaws and frustrations, you still feel a love for this wonderful and often baffling nation of ours. Standing on that rocky point amidst that swirl of thoughts and emotions, you feel the beauty of "patriotism" in its deepest form.
The Grand Tetons….first time I went i got to the Nat. Forest at night…pitched the tent by the headlights…l woke up the next morning stepped out of the tent….the vistas was so stunning it
I find American beauty in being with like minded people rescuing and saving animals. It could be volunteering at a shelter or rescue. It can be sharing missing or found animals, trying to help them get found or adopted. It can be out in nature and seeing wildlife.
For me, beauty is to be found at Devil's Lake State Park in Sauk County Wisconsin. My father was park manager so we lived in the park in a real log house on the shores of the lake. This was during the 1950's and 1960's. Life was simple and idyllic. All our needs were met, surrounded by loving, friendly family and community. The land was previously inhabited by the Ho-Chunk peoples. I often wondered how it felt to live there then. The name Devil's Lake came from them. My father even wrote a history of the area, a book called "A Lake Where Spirits Live". It was a wonderful place to grow up during a time free of the divisions, hatred, jealousies and lies that plague our country today. Or so it seemed to me.
I also grew up in the Chicago area. I was very fortunate to work as a travel nurse. I lived and worked in 7 states. I found the mountains in Santa Fe, Taos, and the drive from Sedona to Tucson absolutely beautiful. Also, Truckee and Lake Tahoe. And, of course the Rocky Mountains in CO.
Crater Lake in southern Oregon needs to be on everyone’s bucket list. Although only accessible in the summer, a person can spend hours sitting on a log or rock mesmerized by the beauty and serenity. Even during touristy times, the sacred aura of the park has everyone so spellbound that there is a real quiet to the place. I live 5 hours away but make the trek as often as possible when I need a reset from Mother Nature.
I find beauty in my little corner of the world, Tallahassee, Florida. I found it in my home in Princeton, New Jersey, before that in Denver, Colorado. I feel lucky to have spent a lot of kid-time in the South Bay and in Los Angeles, California, itself. Is this a beautiful country—or what?
I grew up in Western PA in Mercer County, and used to drive to Pittsburgh when I cut high school classes. I often walked back the railroad tracks by my house, through the farmlands and strip mines. It is a beautiful country, but my mom grew up in Tucson in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona. I came out to see what it was like more then forty years ago and will never go back. There is such beauty in the sparseness, the majesty of saguaros, the subtle changing of the seasons when the prickly pear bloom and the ocotillios change color, the brilliance of sunrise and sunset. The cobalt blue of the sky in winter here is like nowhere else. I take heart in the environmental awareness and protection folks around here - especially the Tohono O'odham and Yaqui tribes - engage in, and I'm right there with them. We are turning this state purple on the way to blue.
I find American Beauty in my own backyard as I watch Monarch butterflies feasting on and laying eggs on the milkweed I’ve planted. I find that beauty in watching the caterpillars hatch, devour the weed, spin incredible chrysalises and then hatch into butterflies again.
As a resident of Southern California, the regional diversity reflects beauty; the different cultures represented have made America. And , I would be remiss if I did not mention our national treasures, the national parks, the recreation areas and monuments. Thank you to the wisdom of those preceding us . Their efforts preserved natural beauty for the world. My favorite is the Yellowstone ecosystem. It is true truly an American Serengeti, accessible to all.
American beauty is all over the country. My late husband, our two dogs traveled all around this great land and found beauty everywhere; not only in nature but in its people. That was in 2001 before 9/11 and before all the hate and division that I’ve watched seep into our society like a poison gas. It’s dangerous and threatening to the point of fracture. But I choose to believe that there are more good, sane folks that want us to continue to succeed. These are the people we will need to befriend and find commonality with. We have got to believe in ourselves and in our inherent goodness again. Then we have to bear down and do the hard work it will take to bring us back together again.
I find the beauty of America in my home state of California, but we've driven and camped all across America, from the West Coast to the East Coast. I always come back to California. We have the beaches, the Mountains, and the desert all in one state. I have lived in all three and I love each one for their differences. We retired near Mt Shasta, my favorite of all three. We have all 4 seasons here. And then California has Yosemite, Death Valley, and Disneyland.
Beauty is everywhere for those who seek it. Beautiful words here shine light on American Beauty; it comes from within these beautiful people. The heart finds it in the world by inhaling with breath, eyes, minds, hearts. I feel the energy in these expressions with tears in my eyes, grateful for everything.
I live in Marin County, CA, where 83% of the land is park or open space. I hike or bike most days; from pristine beaches to the trails high on Mt. Tam. The natural beauty of land and wildlife is what keeps me sane when I am overwhelmed with the chaos on our nation's politics.
I am truly in awe of where I already live. Florida is home on every level and Jacksonville with all its problems is a city I bleed for and want to see win. That said, Harlan and Eastern Ky is absolutely unreal in beauty and different colors breed of people. Really pretty and South Florida is just so picture perfect and fun. California though is where I miss the most.
The national parks especially Yellowstone and Jackson, amazing wildlife. Visiting DC is always emotional, so much history, beautiful monuments, gardens, rivers. We go a few times a year to visit the kids. During the dark years 2017 - 2020, I cried. Now I smile.
Late spring/early summer mornings when farmers, livestock, and wildlife begin to stir on the farm in the Sacramento Delta with the sunny day's wafting perfume dissipating the dew off of the fresh-cut alfalfa hay, seconded only by the evening sunset on the same day with a tractor chugging and the Delta breeze rising to cool the house for the evening rest before the mosquitos arrive to dance with the bats.
I actually recognized the picture as Pittsburgh right away having enjoyed a visit there for a conference years ago. Glad you found it as intriguing as I did.
All the American Beauty I need is literally in my own back yard. No matter the nonsense going on in Washington and throughout my deep red state, I am free to practice my convictions in my garden, and share the bounty with my neighbors, for the benefit of my community.
Thank you for having a goal to “buoy battered spirits” and you are correct the venom our Democratic systems face right now make me sometimes forget the beauty around us. In grade school we studied Russia and the way Freedom of the Press did not exist. I read Newsweek in those days and became very sadly aware of how the Russian people were prevented knowing the Truth. I felt grateful even then for the beauty of Freedom of the Press, here and knowing the facts.
Now we face a crisis with a full throttled attack on Truth by the MAGA Repubs muddying the facts do much that their supports are stripped of knowing the Truth. I struggle a great deal with this travesty.
Back to beauty: I was with some effort able to purchase a home with a magnificent view of our foothills which truly do look the “purple mountain majesty” in “America the Beautiful”
You and others offer us Hope with many of your writings and Hope is beautiful!
When I was just starting out working in television in Cincinnati, Ohio, I got to do a story on traveling by riverboat. I traveled on the Delta Queen down the Ohio River a ways, and the captain invited me to take the wheel. It was magical, as all the markers of downtown drifted by. I imagined how the river inspired Mark Twain to tell his tales of "Life on the Mississippi."
Hmm--now that I'm thinking of it, perhaps that seeded my ambitions to become an author. Only it's time travel, not riverboat travel I imagine at the Edge of Yesterday!
I belong to Encore Creativity for older adults (or....formerly young). Our director- Ethan Lolley -young talented and so enthusiastic makes us laugh. Looking around the room at the group all smiling and grinning gives me so much joy.
Few, if any, countries are blessed with the many varieties of physical beauty we possess. After retirement, we sold our house, moved into our RV and spent 14 years traveling the United States full time. There was no place that we visited that didn't offer its own kind of unique beauty, be it subalpine mountain grandeur, high or low desert, the craggy shorelines of the east or west coast, the southern cypress swamps or Everglades, the windblown splendor of the midwestern short and tallgrass prairies, or the urban beauty of so many of our cities large and small.
The true beauty of this country, however, in her people. Yes, we have our divisions, but in reality, we have more similarities than differences despite the efforts of a wannabe dictator and his sycophants. Most of us care about our fellow humans, our children, our environment, our world despite efforts of evil forces trying to instill hatred. There is beauty in that.
Beauty is within us, even if we sometimes have trouble seeing it.
I find beauty and wonder everywhere I go in America. There are stories, history, and beauty everywhere I have visited. Sometimes I have search a little bit more in some places than others, but it's always present. That said, I live right next to Chicago, and as cities go, I feel it's the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Skyscrapers are our mountains, with 22 miles of lakefront parkland, beautiful River walks and much more makes it very special. Michael, come back and see the changes in the place you left!
My wife and l lived for a while in Albuquerque. I became interested in the Native American sites around the state. I visited many of them and took photos of the rock art that most had. I was most impressed by Chaco Canyon, a ceremonial site in western New Mexico. It's an amazing place! It took great skill and effort to build. There were straight roads leading to it, and the buildings were aligned to one another, even those which were not visible from the others. The people who made Chaco Canyon had an advanced civilization that too few people recognize or appreciate.
I was born and raised in Santa Fe and it’s still heaven to me, beauty in every direction, filled with history, art, and great food. When I was a kid my dad was a photographer for the National Park Service, assigned to the Four Corners region. So I grew up living in Santa Fe but spending many weeks and months in residence (by which I mean a little boy running wild) at Grand Canyon, Brice, Monument Valley, Zion, Mesa Verde, Cañon de Chelly, Arches (then not yet a Park) Bandelier, White Sands, Carlsbad, and on foot for miles and miles across reservation lands, down through arroyos, and up to mountain tops. It was the most glorious imaginable childhood. The American Southwest is unrivaled in its beauty by any place on Planet Earth. And it was all mine!!
I find beauty in the woods. Any woods. If you are very quiet you are always aware you are not alone. I am fortunate to have woods around me. Try to find time every day.
I live in SW Montana. Sometimes we have to stop the car, because a huge herd of Elk are crossing the road from the mountains to the Yellowstone River. In my yard I have a tame Magpie, wild 'pet' rabbits and Chickadees that land on me and eat out of my hand. These critters have me well trained. They're what I love the most. Steven, thank you for buoying up our spirits and giving us the opportunity to remind ourselves about something beautiful we all love in this country, and to share it with each other. Today I really needed that and feel much better. America, America -best newsletter!
Everywhere actually. I moved from Chicago which has its own beauty, to Northern California 53 years ago. The Bay has always enchanted me from the first time I saw it and still does. The beauty of the Golden Gate is incomparable. Almost everywhere in California is beautiful - mountains, ocean, lakes, hills. Everywhere I’ve traveled has beauty and of course it is in the eye of the beholder.
America’s beauty is its democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion or not, and as FDR reminded us! We are in danger--real danger--of losing it eleven months from now so let’s all work together to get all the younger folks 18 to 29 registered! Please go to www.TurnUp.US and then make sure everyone votes! Keep America’s true beauty alive and flourishing!
I find beauty in my backyard in Michigan, and enjoy the 4 seasons, and all the visiting birds and deer. And of course living in MI we are surrounded by the Great Lakes which are all so beautiful in their own ways. We have a little cottage in Caseville, MI, which is at the top of the thumb. In summertime, sitting on the Saginaw Bay which comes off of Lake Huron, it is breathtaking to watch the sunset.
Where to begin! Having lived in Wyoming for the past 10 years with many visits here prior, I can attest to the variety of eye-popping landscapes, plentiful wildlife, and historic locations throughout the region...something for everyone! But also the mesmerizing waves of the North Shore of Oahu, the moonscape terrain of the Badlands of South Dakota with a billion stars overhead, the majestic red rock spires and bluffs against a cloud-dotted blue sky in Monument Valley and the jaw-dropping scenery of Zion NP, the densely forested Ozarks with the endless twittering of birds and streams for floating, the rolling farmland tapestry of the Palouse region in SE Washington, and the historic and moving Revolutionary War sites of Yorktown and Valley Forge just to name a few. Being able to travel this amazing country is the greatest blessing!
I live in fly over country--the Dakotas. And as others have pointed out, I believe beauty exists all over this country, this world. Author N. Scott Momaday says: "Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk."
I believe if you do, you'll find beauty and a sense of place.
Momaday, N. Scott. Earth Keeper (p. vii). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
This is indeed a good time to reflect on our American beauty. Your prompt brought back a flood of childhood memories; visiting our neighbors with Playdough meals made specially for them, including green peas, hamburgers and whatever else the colors of those days would allow...and the gracious and welcoming smiles of those neighbors who delighted in our gift. I remember people sitting on their front porches, not armed with guns, but with words of greeting. I remember the beauty of the dogwood that we planted from a school plant sale that grew into a magnificent specimen. I remember the tadpole I found with my best friend who we kept carefully tended in a bucket by our back door. I remember the tether ball pole my father installed in our concrete driveway so that we could invite friends to play. I remember the neighborhood games of hide and seek we used to play and the dress up parades we had. I remember the dumb plays we gave in our friends’ backyards that all the parents watched. This was the beauty of community.
As I grew older, I understood better what sacrifices were made by my friends’ fathers and grandfathers during wars they fought for our freedom. I learned, as a Jew, what priceless cultural and scientific contributions other Jewish Americans and immigrants from every part of the world had brought to this country and I am still in awe. I still get uniquely American chills when I watch a musical...a creative endeavor born of the optimism of immigrants who believed in this country’s ideals and democratic mission. I remember so often the exchange students hosted by my parents who immeasurable enriched our lives. Years later, I married a man from France. I adored my in-laws and the country we visited so often. I have rich and lovely memories that continue to grow with each visit to the remaining French family and friends. This is the beauty of sacrifice and creativity.
Despite the heartache we face in this particular moment, I still believe in the beauty of America’s promise...that its arms will remain open to all who seek refuge here. I refuse to let the ugliness deface my love of the beauty of America...because although some are determined to muddy its face, it is, after all, still beautiful.
California's eastern Sierra was an unfamiliar area to my husband, two sons, and me before we attended my alma mater's Family Camp at the Feather River Inn in Graeagle, a small town some 50 miles north of Truckee and Lake Tahoe, for the first time in 1997. For seven years we returned the second week of July with 20 other families to relish simplicity, community, goofiness, clean air, and the unfettered beauty of Plumas County.
Hikes in the Gold Lakes Basin, views of the Sierra Buttes, the Union Pacific trans-Sierra train blasting its horn every night at the crossing not far from the Inn (I love the sound of a train's horn to this day), star watching in the parking lot at the Jonesville Ski Resort, founded in the 1860's when gold was discovered in the area, trout fishing in the Inn's pond, and having the trout that was caught served at dinner, tubing the middle fork of the Feather River in years when rain was plentiful, singing camp songs on the Inn's steps every morning before the kids went off with their counselors and the adults chose whether to hike, get a massage, do a beer tasting or read on the Inn's wide front porch in an Adirondack chair... What could be better?
This couldn't have been a more quintessential American experience. My sons anticipated that they would one day become counselors and then would go to Family Camp with their own spouses and children. Sadly, the university sold the Inn in 2003 and Family Camp ended. But the memories have carried us through 20 years and remain as vivid as when we first drove from I-80 north to the hamlet of Graeagle, across the Feather River, and up the road to the venerable Tudor style Feather River Inn, built in 1912 by the Union Pacific Railroad to bring tourism to this pristine corner of the world.
There is one very small thing that stirs my heart and makes me glad I live where I do. Coming south across the Ballard Bridge in Seattle, one looks out over Fisherman's Wharf, home of the Seattle based fishing fleet. On a sunny day, the boats and the water and the sky never fail to give me joy. I think it may be the combination of nature and nurture: a place of industry that also glows with natural beauty. That combo doesn't usually happen.
I grew up in southeastern Idaho and on clear days I could see the magnificent outline of the Teton mountains from my bedroom window. But there was nothing like descending from the terrifying Jackson Pass to the extraordinary vista of the Tetons up close. In those days Jackson was a cowboy town with no super wealthy residents as it has today. I went to college in upstate New York and have lived in NYC since I graduated. But I never fail to look at every picture of the Tetons that I come across and to marvel that they are part of our amazing country.
Our property in the woods in rural Oregon is, to me, the epitome of American beauty. And the drive down the Columbia River Gorge between Oregon and Washington is spectacular. The river, the cliffs, the waterfalls, the basalt columns, the softly rounded Klickitat mountains and the muscular, forested slopes of the Cascades, all are a feast for the eyes.
I also find it here in Western Mass, near the Vermont border. Western Mass is very Progressive and artsy. It's a lot like being back in the DC area, but without the stress. The natural beauty here is mind blowing, too! I feel very blessed to take up here every morning.
I grew up in Maryland, pretty much right on the border of DC. I love that city deeply. Even though I am from Maryland, I always refer to myself as a Washingtonian.
It's not The Hill that I relish. It's the city itself. All parts of that city. When you are from there, you learn to tap into a deep, calming energy that it possesses. You don't notice it if you're a visitor, but once you've been around a while and walked the streets, you find it.
Even protesting there is pretty chill. I don't know how to explain it, other than that the city loves those who respect it and will embrace you if you're around long enough.
It's also just a really beautiful city visually, especially at night as you drive in via River Road or the GW Parkway. If you don't agree, you'll just have to trust me on this.
It is a big city, and it's not some utopia where crime and violence do not happen. Like any city, it has its share of problems, but it's home. It's magic.
These persons bring tears to my eyes for their willingness to sacrifice, so that another can be treated with dignity. And, appreciated as a person, disabilities and all. I’m grateful for the NewsHour for bringing such caregivers to the fore.
This could be a topic for further insight. For now, I’ll pass this on as my sense of Beauty this country has in its midst. Those persons who labor tirelessly for the sake of another.
As a Canadian I find American Beauty in your traditional guiding light throughout the world.
There is no alternative to the USA ... including the EU ...as no one is willing to step up and pay with money and blood for kindness and order in the world ... that no one can match.
That’s why it’s so troubling when we see such a small minority, causing so much trouble for the majority of your wonderful population... taking advantage of the fairness in your system to do harm.
Never bet against the USA, and it’s kindness and compassion, that’s what I’m banking on going into 2024.
We are all with you guys ... Most people say nothing, but are deeply grateful. Just be aware of that.
Have a very merry Christmas from Canada ... to our wonderful friends and neighbours in the USA ❤️
Being in Manhattan looking at the people on the street and seeing every color, size, clothing, gender, and attitude on Earth in a single glance.
Along the rocky shore in Lubec, Maine, there's a point of land called West Quoddy Head that juts out into the sea. It is the easternmost point in the USA. The craggy shoreline is beautiful, especially when the surf is crashing into the rocks below. But there's another type of beauty when you stand there at the very edge of our nation, more of a feeling than a scenic vista. Face westward and you picture the vast diversity our land and people in front of you. You reflect on the inspiring values that shaped our nation. You feel the power of our accomplishments throughout our short history, as well as our ongoing and often painful struggles to become a "more perfect Union." Face east and you imagine the potential of what this nation can become, especially if we keep building on our founding ideals and values. You feel a mix of pride, sadness, fear, and hope. With all its flaws and frustrations, you still feel a love for this wonderful and often baffling nation of ours. Standing on that rocky point amidst that swirl of thoughts and emotions, you feel the beauty of "patriotism" in its deepest form.
I find beauty, serenity and an overwhelming sense of grandeur in national and state parks, especially Glacier NP.
The Grand Tetons….first time I went i got to the Nat. Forest at night…pitched the tent by the headlights…l woke up the next morning stepped out of the tent….the vistas was so stunning it
was the most beautiful sight
I find American beauty in being with like minded people rescuing and saving animals. It could be volunteering at a shelter or rescue. It can be sharing missing or found animals, trying to help them get found or adopted. It can be out in nature and seeing wildlife.
For me, beauty is to be found at Devil's Lake State Park in Sauk County Wisconsin. My father was park manager so we lived in the park in a real log house on the shores of the lake. This was during the 1950's and 1960's. Life was simple and idyllic. All our needs were met, surrounded by loving, friendly family and community. The land was previously inhabited by the Ho-Chunk peoples. I often wondered how it felt to live there then. The name Devil's Lake came from them. My father even wrote a history of the area, a book called "A Lake Where Spirits Live". It was a wonderful place to grow up during a time free of the divisions, hatred, jealousies and lies that plague our country today. Or so it seemed to me.
I also grew up in the Chicago area. I was very fortunate to work as a travel nurse. I lived and worked in 7 states. I found the mountains in Santa Fe, Taos, and the drive from Sedona to Tucson absolutely beautiful. Also, Truckee and Lake Tahoe. And, of course the Rocky Mountains in CO.
I find spiritual beauty by listening to music.
I have been lucky in my career to travel quite bit overseas as well as within the US the two that stand out for me
Lake Tahoe from the south side
The drive to Santa Fe from Arizona I must pulled off the highway a dozen times to enjoy the views
Where do I find American beauty? In the rule of law, democracy, Dolly Parton, volunteerism, and the Niobrara River valley in northern Nebraska.
Crater Lake in southern Oregon needs to be on everyone’s bucket list. Although only accessible in the summer, a person can spend hours sitting on a log or rock mesmerized by the beauty and serenity. Even during touristy times, the sacred aura of the park has everyone so spellbound that there is a real quiet to the place. I live 5 hours away but make the trek as often as possible when I need a reset from Mother Nature.
I find beauty in my little corner of the world, Tallahassee, Florida. I found it in my home in Princeton, New Jersey, before that in Denver, Colorado. I feel lucky to have spent a lot of kid-time in the South Bay and in Los Angeles, California, itself. Is this a beautiful country—or what?
I grew up in Western PA in Mercer County, and used to drive to Pittsburgh when I cut high school classes. I often walked back the railroad tracks by my house, through the farmlands and strip mines. It is a beautiful country, but my mom grew up in Tucson in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona. I came out to see what it was like more then forty years ago and will never go back. There is such beauty in the sparseness, the majesty of saguaros, the subtle changing of the seasons when the prickly pear bloom and the ocotillios change color, the brilliance of sunrise and sunset. The cobalt blue of the sky in winter here is like nowhere else. I take heart in the environmental awareness and protection folks around here - especially the Tohono O'odham and Yaqui tribes - engage in, and I'm right there with them. We are turning this state purple on the way to blue.
I find American Beauty in my own backyard as I watch Monarch butterflies feasting on and laying eggs on the milkweed I’ve planted. I find that beauty in watching the caterpillars hatch, devour the weed, spin incredible chrysalises and then hatch into butterflies again.
I find beauty in the American mother and daughter couple of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
As a resident of Southern California, the regional diversity reflects beauty; the different cultures represented have made America. And , I would be remiss if I did not mention our national treasures, the national parks, the recreation areas and monuments. Thank you to the wisdom of those preceding us . Their efforts preserved natural beauty for the world. My favorite is the Yellowstone ecosystem. It is true truly an American Serengeti, accessible to all.
American beauty is all over the country. My late husband, our two dogs traveled all around this great land and found beauty everywhere; not only in nature but in its people. That was in 2001 before 9/11 and before all the hate and division that I’ve watched seep into our society like a poison gas. It’s dangerous and threatening to the point of fracture. But I choose to believe that there are more good, sane folks that want us to continue to succeed. These are the people we will need to befriend and find commonality with. We have got to believe in ourselves and in our inherent goodness again. Then we have to bear down and do the hard work it will take to bring us back together again.
I find the beauty of America in my home state of California, but we've driven and camped all across America, from the West Coast to the East Coast. I always come back to California. We have the beaches, the Mountains, and the desert all in one state. I have lived in all three and I love each one for their differences. We retired near Mt Shasta, my favorite of all three. We have all 4 seasons here. And then California has Yosemite, Death Valley, and Disneyland.
Beauty is everywhere for those who seek it. Beautiful words here shine light on American Beauty; it comes from within these beautiful people. The heart finds it in the world by inhaling with breath, eyes, minds, hearts. I feel the energy in these expressions with tears in my eyes, grateful for everything.
I live in Marin County, CA, where 83% of the land is park or open space. I hike or bike most days; from pristine beaches to the trails high on Mt. Tam. The natural beauty of land and wildlife is what keeps me sane when I am overwhelmed with the chaos on our nation's politics.
I am truly in awe of where I already live. Florida is home on every level and Jacksonville with all its problems is a city I bleed for and want to see win. That said, Harlan and Eastern Ky is absolutely unreal in beauty and different colors breed of people. Really pretty and South Florida is just so picture perfect and fun. California though is where I miss the most.
The national parks especially Yellowstone and Jackson, amazing wildlife. Visiting DC is always emotional, so much history, beautiful monuments, gardens, rivers. We go a few times a year to visit the kids. During the dark years 2017 - 2020, I cried. Now I smile.
Late spring/early summer mornings when farmers, livestock, and wildlife begin to stir on the farm in the Sacramento Delta with the sunny day's wafting perfume dissipating the dew off of the fresh-cut alfalfa hay, seconded only by the evening sunset on the same day with a tractor chugging and the Delta breeze rising to cool the house for the evening rest before the mosquitos arrive to dance with the bats.
I actually recognized the picture as Pittsburgh right away having enjoyed a visit there for a conference years ago. Glad you found it as intriguing as I did.
All the American Beauty I need is literally in my own back yard. No matter the nonsense going on in Washington and throughout my deep red state, I am free to practice my convictions in my garden, and share the bounty with my neighbors, for the benefit of my community.
Thank you for having a goal to “buoy battered spirits” and you are correct the venom our Democratic systems face right now make me sometimes forget the beauty around us. In grade school we studied Russia and the way Freedom of the Press did not exist. I read Newsweek in those days and became very sadly aware of how the Russian people were prevented knowing the Truth. I felt grateful even then for the beauty of Freedom of the Press, here and knowing the facts.
Now we face a crisis with a full throttled attack on Truth by the MAGA Repubs muddying the facts do much that their supports are stripped of knowing the Truth. I struggle a great deal with this travesty.
Back to beauty: I was with some effort able to purchase a home with a magnificent view of our foothills which truly do look the “purple mountain majesty” in “America the Beautiful”
You and others offer us Hope with many of your writings and Hope is beautiful!
When I was just starting out working in television in Cincinnati, Ohio, I got to do a story on traveling by riverboat. I traveled on the Delta Queen down the Ohio River a ways, and the captain invited me to take the wheel. It was magical, as all the markers of downtown drifted by. I imagined how the river inspired Mark Twain to tell his tales of "Life on the Mississippi."
Hmm--now that I'm thinking of it, perhaps that seeded my ambitions to become an author. Only it's time travel, not riverboat travel I imagine at the Edge of Yesterday!
I belong to Encore Creativity for older adults (or....formerly young). Our director- Ethan Lolley -young talented and so enthusiastic makes us laugh. Looking around the room at the group all smiling and grinning gives me so much joy.
Few, if any, countries are blessed with the many varieties of physical beauty we possess. After retirement, we sold our house, moved into our RV and spent 14 years traveling the United States full time. There was no place that we visited that didn't offer its own kind of unique beauty, be it subalpine mountain grandeur, high or low desert, the craggy shorelines of the east or west coast, the southern cypress swamps or Everglades, the windblown splendor of the midwestern short and tallgrass prairies, or the urban beauty of so many of our cities large and small.
The true beauty of this country, however, in her people. Yes, we have our divisions, but in reality, we have more similarities than differences despite the efforts of a wannabe dictator and his sycophants. Most of us care about our fellow humans, our children, our environment, our world despite efforts of evil forces trying to instill hatred. There is beauty in that.
Beauty is within us, even if we sometimes have trouble seeing it.
I find beauty and wonder everywhere I go in America. There are stories, history, and beauty everywhere I have visited. Sometimes I have search a little bit more in some places than others, but it's always present. That said, I live right next to Chicago, and as cities go, I feel it's the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Skyscrapers are our mountains, with 22 miles of lakefront parkland, beautiful River walks and much more makes it very special. Michael, come back and see the changes in the place you left!
My wife and l lived for a while in Albuquerque. I became interested in the Native American sites around the state. I visited many of them and took photos of the rock art that most had. I was most impressed by Chaco Canyon, a ceremonial site in western New Mexico. It's an amazing place! It took great skill and effort to build. There were straight roads leading to it, and the buildings were aligned to one another, even those which were not visible from the others. The people who made Chaco Canyon had an advanced civilization that too few people recognize or appreciate.
I was born and raised in Santa Fe and it’s still heaven to me, beauty in every direction, filled with history, art, and great food. When I was a kid my dad was a photographer for the National Park Service, assigned to the Four Corners region. So I grew up living in Santa Fe but spending many weeks and months in residence (by which I mean a little boy running wild) at Grand Canyon, Brice, Monument Valley, Zion, Mesa Verde, Cañon de Chelly, Arches (then not yet a Park) Bandelier, White Sands, Carlsbad, and on foot for miles and miles across reservation lands, down through arroyos, and up to mountain tops. It was the most glorious imaginable childhood. The American Southwest is unrivaled in its beauty by any place on Planet Earth. And it was all mine!!
Just listen to the lyrics of This Land is Your Land...Beautiful, meaningful, simple and so true.
I find beauty in the woods. Any woods. If you are very quiet you are always aware you are not alone. I am fortunate to have woods around me. Try to find time every day.
I live in SW Montana. Sometimes we have to stop the car, because a huge herd of Elk are crossing the road from the mountains to the Yellowstone River. In my yard I have a tame Magpie, wild 'pet' rabbits and Chickadees that land on me and eat out of my hand. These critters have me well trained. They're what I love the most. Steven, thank you for buoying up our spirits and giving us the opportunity to remind ourselves about something beautiful we all love in this country, and to share it with each other. Today I really needed that and feel much better. America, America -best newsletter!
Everywhere actually. I moved from Chicago which has its own beauty, to Northern California 53 years ago. The Bay has always enchanted me from the first time I saw it and still does. The beauty of the Golden Gate is incomparable. Almost everywhere in California is beautiful - mountains, ocean, lakes, hills. Everywhere I’ve traveled has beauty and of course it is in the eye of the beholder.
America’s beauty is its democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion or not, and as FDR reminded us! We are in danger--real danger--of losing it eleven months from now so let’s all work together to get all the younger folks 18 to 29 registered! Please go to www.TurnUp.US and then make sure everyone votes! Keep America’s true beauty alive and flourishing!
I find beauty in my backyard in Michigan, and enjoy the 4 seasons, and all the visiting birds and deer. And of course living in MI we are surrounded by the Great Lakes which are all so beautiful in their own ways. We have a little cottage in Caseville, MI, which is at the top of the thumb. In summertime, sitting on the Saginaw Bay which comes off of Lake Huron, it is breathtaking to watch the sunset.
Where to begin! Having lived in Wyoming for the past 10 years with many visits here prior, I can attest to the variety of eye-popping landscapes, plentiful wildlife, and historic locations throughout the region...something for everyone! But also the mesmerizing waves of the North Shore of Oahu, the moonscape terrain of the Badlands of South Dakota with a billion stars overhead, the majestic red rock spires and bluffs against a cloud-dotted blue sky in Monument Valley and the jaw-dropping scenery of Zion NP, the densely forested Ozarks with the endless twittering of birds and streams for floating, the rolling farmland tapestry of the Palouse region in SE Washington, and the historic and moving Revolutionary War sites of Yorktown and Valley Forge just to name a few. Being able to travel this amazing country is the greatest blessing!
I think almost all Minnesotans go up to the North Shore and the boundary waters on a regular basis
I live in fly over country--the Dakotas. And as others have pointed out, I believe beauty exists all over this country, this world. Author N. Scott Momaday says: "Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk."
I believe if you do, you'll find beauty and a sense of place.
Momaday, N. Scott. Earth Keeper (p. vii). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
This is indeed a good time to reflect on our American beauty. Your prompt brought back a flood of childhood memories; visiting our neighbors with Playdough meals made specially for them, including green peas, hamburgers and whatever else the colors of those days would allow...and the gracious and welcoming smiles of those neighbors who delighted in our gift. I remember people sitting on their front porches, not armed with guns, but with words of greeting. I remember the beauty of the dogwood that we planted from a school plant sale that grew into a magnificent specimen. I remember the tadpole I found with my best friend who we kept carefully tended in a bucket by our back door. I remember the tether ball pole my father installed in our concrete driveway so that we could invite friends to play. I remember the neighborhood games of hide and seek we used to play and the dress up parades we had. I remember the dumb plays we gave in our friends’ backyards that all the parents watched. This was the beauty of community.
As I grew older, I understood better what sacrifices were made by my friends’ fathers and grandfathers during wars they fought for our freedom. I learned, as a Jew, what priceless cultural and scientific contributions other Jewish Americans and immigrants from every part of the world had brought to this country and I am still in awe. I still get uniquely American chills when I watch a musical...a creative endeavor born of the optimism of immigrants who believed in this country’s ideals and democratic mission. I remember so often the exchange students hosted by my parents who immeasurable enriched our lives. Years later, I married a man from France. I adored my in-laws and the country we visited so often. I have rich and lovely memories that continue to grow with each visit to the remaining French family and friends. This is the beauty of sacrifice and creativity.
Despite the heartache we face in this particular moment, I still believe in the beauty of America’s promise...that its arms will remain open to all who seek refuge here. I refuse to let the ugliness deface my love of the beauty of America...because although some are determined to muddy its face, it is, after all, still beautiful.
California's eastern Sierra was an unfamiliar area to my husband, two sons, and me before we attended my alma mater's Family Camp at the Feather River Inn in Graeagle, a small town some 50 miles north of Truckee and Lake Tahoe, for the first time in 1997. For seven years we returned the second week of July with 20 other families to relish simplicity, community, goofiness, clean air, and the unfettered beauty of Plumas County.
Hikes in the Gold Lakes Basin, views of the Sierra Buttes, the Union Pacific trans-Sierra train blasting its horn every night at the crossing not far from the Inn (I love the sound of a train's horn to this day), star watching in the parking lot at the Jonesville Ski Resort, founded in the 1860's when gold was discovered in the area, trout fishing in the Inn's pond, and having the trout that was caught served at dinner, tubing the middle fork of the Feather River in years when rain was plentiful, singing camp songs on the Inn's steps every morning before the kids went off with their counselors and the adults chose whether to hike, get a massage, do a beer tasting or read on the Inn's wide front porch in an Adirondack chair... What could be better?
This couldn't have been a more quintessential American experience. My sons anticipated that they would one day become counselors and then would go to Family Camp with their own spouses and children. Sadly, the university sold the Inn in 2003 and Family Camp ended. But the memories have carried us through 20 years and remain as vivid as when we first drove from I-80 north to the hamlet of Graeagle, across the Feather River, and up the road to the venerable Tudor style Feather River Inn, built in 1912 by the Union Pacific Railroad to bring tourism to this pristine corner of the world.
If there were a way to upload photo it would save 1000 words or so.
There is one very small thing that stirs my heart and makes me glad I live where I do. Coming south across the Ballard Bridge in Seattle, one looks out over Fisherman's Wharf, home of the Seattle based fishing fleet. On a sunny day, the boats and the water and the sky never fail to give me joy. I think it may be the combination of nature and nurture: a place of industry that also glows with natural beauty. That combo doesn't usually happen.
I grew up in southeastern Idaho and on clear days I could see the magnificent outline of the Teton mountains from my bedroom window. But there was nothing like descending from the terrifying Jackson Pass to the extraordinary vista of the Tetons up close. In those days Jackson was a cowboy town with no super wealthy residents as it has today. I went to college in upstate New York and have lived in NYC since I graduated. But I never fail to look at every picture of the Tetons that I come across and to marvel that they are part of our amazing country.
Our property in the woods in rural Oregon is, to me, the epitome of American beauty. And the drive down the Columbia River Gorge between Oregon and Washington is spectacular. The river, the cliffs, the waterfalls, the basalt columns, the softly rounded Klickitat mountains and the muscular, forested slopes of the Cascades, all are a feast for the eyes.
I also find it here in Western Mass, near the Vermont border. Western Mass is very Progressive and artsy. It's a lot like being back in the DC area, but without the stress. The natural beauty here is mind blowing, too! I feel very blessed to take up here every morning.
I grew up in Maryland, pretty much right on the border of DC. I love that city deeply. Even though I am from Maryland, I always refer to myself as a Washingtonian.
It's not The Hill that I relish. It's the city itself. All parts of that city. When you are from there, you learn to tap into a deep, calming energy that it possesses. You don't notice it if you're a visitor, but once you've been around a while and walked the streets, you find it.
Even protesting there is pretty chill. I don't know how to explain it, other than that the city loves those who respect it and will embrace you if you're around long enough.
It's also just a really beautiful city visually, especially at night as you drive in via River Road or the GW Parkway. If you don't agree, you'll just have to trust me on this.
It is a big city, and it's not some utopia where crime and violence do not happen. Like any city, it has its share of problems, but it's home. It's magic.
Steven, today (Dec. 20th now, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whats-behind-the-shortage-of-direct-care-workers-who-support-people-with-disabilities) on The NewsHour(PBS), was a beautiful story about the character of some of the people in this country. People who, all too often, go unnoticed. And, sadly, are vastly under appreciated, based on their pay.
These persons bring tears to my eyes for their willingness to sacrifice, so that another can be treated with dignity. And, appreciated as a person, disabilities and all. I’m grateful for the NewsHour for bringing such caregivers to the fore.
This could be a topic for further insight. For now, I’ll pass this on as my sense of Beauty this country has in its midst. Those persons who labor tirelessly for the sake of another.