Love from afar - why Europe looks good from here.

Across The Pond – distance makes the heart grow fonder (or the smart go yonder)

 My friends don’t get it. 

Oh sure there are a few (of the fair sex) that think David Beckham is hot, or that Princess Kate wears nice clothes.  But they don’t really love England, nor do they understand why anyone on this side of the pond would.

But as the son of a Cockney war bride, and the Grandson of a Royal Marine, I am by birthright, an unapologetic Anglophile.  Being raised on Yorkshire pudding and bangers and mash has resulted in a decades long love affair from across the pond.

I record Rugby matches on the DVR while all my friends record football, (as in American football).  I prefer Formula One at Silverstone to the Daytona 500.  If this is discovered I could be exiled from NASCAR country.

And I don’t understand why no one else is excited about Tottenham Hotspur’s 3^rd place in Premier League standings.  I even like the fact that sporting matches are referred to as either fixtures or tests, whereas we Americans would call them games.

But this is greater than an affinity for all things England, and more profound than an affection borne from a childhood listening to Mom’s stories about her homeland. 

        I find I am inexplicably drawn to Europe in toto.

I listen to Biréli Lagrène and The Pogues, my homepage is the BBC News web site, and I spend hours listening to past episodes of the radio program The Thistle and Shamrock.

My favorite historical figure is Winston Churchill and there are so many great authors it is difficult to choose, Sterne, Fielding, Swift, McCourt, etc.

Who makes better cars than Germany?  Just ask yourself if you would rather drive an Impala or BMW - M3?

And if you don’t think Italy is all that hot, then I have four words for you; Elisabetta Canalis, Ferrari and pizza.  Spain gave us Flamenco and Rafael Nadal.

But then there is France.  Our beloved Mark Twain one opined “there is nothing lower than the human race, except the French.”

While there are plenty of reasons to dislike them, and it is always in vogue to dislike the French, let’s examine a few facts.

 The French made a gift to us of the Statue of Liberty.  True, we had to raise money for the pedestal and bear the cost of erection after it arrived, but it was a pretty nice gesture.

The French came to our aid during the Revolutionary War, (granted it was because of their hatred of the British, and they could have arrived sooner), but their help was key to the war ending in our favor.

I suspect the primary reason we dislike the French, is because (with the exception of Nicholas Sarkozy), they don’t really care whether we like them or not.

It is an affront to our Americanism to discover anyone as arrogant as we are.

For example, when the French left Viet Nam in 1954, dragging their wounded and dead back home, the US decided to show them how to win a land war in Asia.  We all know how that turned out.  If we weren't as arrogant as the French we could have learned from their mistakes.

My Mom, God rest her soul, would not have understood my fondness for Germany or Italy.  I suppose since she had a front row seat for the bombing of London, her tolerance for the French was probably borne out of empathy. 

She certainly wouldn’t have tolerated a kind word to be uttered for the Irish.  When I shared with her some Genealogy research that indicated she had ancestors from Ireland, well let’s just say that conversation came to an abrupt end.

The British disdain for the Irish makes about as much sense as the American loathing of the French.  But I have noticed that arguments with family members are always louder than disagreements among people that are unrelated.  Proximity breeds disdain.

 One can pretty easily call to mind any number of reasons not to like Europe.  Socialized medicine, Value Added Tax, 11 vowels and too many consonants (those damned French again), long wet winters, Michael Schumacher, Napoleon, expensive food and all the American boys that never came home from World War II.

 However I choose to focus on the many attractive or interesting attributes that render Europe worthy of our esteem.

 Michael Schumacher, Robin Hood, James Bond, the Black Watch, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Elisabetta Canalis, Lord Nelson, Napoleon, the Three Musketeers, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sherlock Holmes, Miguel Cervantes and James Joyce.  I could go on for several pages, but I think my point is fairly made.

While the people and culture of Europe certainly have a lot to like, when it comes to politicians and government, they are as bad off as the rest of us.   Thankfully I was born an American, and I can carry on my love affair with Europe from a safe distance, which is probably for the best. 

Admiring her from “across the pond” as the expression goes. 

Sort of like how my wife tells me I looked a lot better before she really got to know me.  Actually that is not the first time I've heard that. 

And no matter how many times she mentions that David Beckham is hot, or Pierce Brosnan is soooooo handsome, I’m smart enough not to mention Elisabetta Canalis.