To Krakow and Back

As someone who had lived a portion of his life outside the United States and was brought up in a blend of different cultures, I have never felt comfortable with the idea of taking on a single national identity. Seeing firsthand how the landscape of the Old World was being transformed, with cultures and identities becoming more fluid and integrated, confirmed what I had felt intuitively. Nationalism or patriotism can no longer serve as a defining way of seeing ourselves. The complexity and interrelatedness of today’s world does not allow for that. When our national or ethnic identity becomes the only lens through which we acquire a worldview, we begin to lose the ability to appreciate the diversity inherent in the human condition.