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Rowan Mangan

Author. Explorer. #Looking for America.

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What is this “America” you speak of?

4 July 2018 45 Comments

I really dig America.

But I haven’t really dug into America. You know? I’ve lived here for a while now, but that time has been spent living in the middle of a forest and so I haven’t exactly saturated myself in the marrow of the culture. (Eww.) No question: ignorance is always a missed opportunity. In my defense, I’ve been busy making a new life and falling in love and other distracting activities, so up to now I’ve given myself a pass.

That ends today.

It’s my intention to go on living in this country until the good Lord strikes me down where I stand. So it’s time I learned… um, where it is I stand, exactly. Time I learned a little something about this adopted country of mine.

I’m writing this on July 4th, 2018, sitting in my home on the California ranch where I live with my cute and unconventional family unit. In less than two weeks, the cute family and I will embark on a Really Big Adventure. We’re moving waaaaay across the country, to the eastern tip of Pennsylvania. So basically, from living 30 minutes from the literal sand-and-water West Coast to 60 minutes from the literal mafia-victim-bones-and-icy-sludge East Coast.

We’re a bunch of crazy kids, my people, and big moves is how we do.

Along with my resourceful, goodlooking wife, I’m going to drive the 3000-odd miles from California to Pennsylvania. Our goal is to do this in five days. Because we’re zany like that. Our travel companions will be Mister Bilbo Baggins of Bag End and Miss Claire Bear Fair-of-Hair. The rest of the unit will fly and meet us there. I can’t vouch for other people’s choices.

Me, I can’t wait to steer Sappho the trusty Subaru through the floor of the flyover states and get me a taste of America.

AMERICA, y’all.

I should be able to at least glimpse it out the window, right?


At any rate, this blog is where I’m going to share my observations and ideas about my new country as I tune in. The hermit years are over. I’m coming to look for America.

I’ll use this blog to chart my unfurling discovery of the country and its people, and invite you to help me out where I’m still in the dark. I’m hoping that my American friends and my American strangers will leap in to share your experience of the country: culture, language, idiosyncrasies, weird and wonderful food, freaky antiquated traditions. Everything!

I’ll be writing about America’s sublime and America’s ridiculous as they appear through my naive little Aussie eyes.

That said, this is not a blog about politics. Two reasons: one, it would fill the sky and there would be nothing else to write about. I want to discuss unity and quirk and humanity wherever I encounter it, not get bogged down in divisiveness and despair. The second reason for no politics is that, as I mentioned, I want to stay here in the US forever — and that’s not yet in the bag, folks. So for those who know me as a political animal, read between the lines and continue to love me.

I want to publish this first blog post on the Fourth of July. But before I do so, I want to tell you how my self-education is going in my own home so far.

Me: Tell me about the first Fourth of July.

Wife: Well, it was just after Jesus died, I guess.

I would love it if you would come along with me on this literal and figurative journey. Please read and weigh in and contradict my suppositions. Please help me look for America. I know I left it in here somewhere.

Question: Americans, please answer in the comments. If there were one thing I absolutely needed to know to get by in the US, what would it be?

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Filed Under: Health inventures, Parenting inventures Tagged With: adventures, education, family, july4th

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  1. Mary Walker says

    5 July 2018 at 12:48 am

    Like an outsiders guide to USA? Just what I need. Cheers, Ro!

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 12:51 am

      Thanks, Mary! (And for being my first-ever comment!) I hope so. It’s going to be an interesting exercise in testing my observations against others’ experience. Hoping I can just blurt and say “tell me where I’m wrong” – !!

      Reply
  2. River LaMoreaux says

    5 July 2018 at 1:23 am

    The US is an odd patchwork of place and subcultures. Each region has its own designs, shape, flavors, mores, and connection to landscape. Enjoy the flow of difference as you drive through.

    Hit the local diners and listen to local conversations. Pay attention to regional subtleties in road signage, what people are selling, how politics show up, differences in the landscape and how subcultures inhabit those differences.

    I’d also get a map of the physiographic regions because these major shifts in regional landscapes create shifts in subcultures.

    Enjoy! Don’t rush through. Stop at things that seem interesting or beautiful.

    Oh, and if given a choice between interstate and a back highway, choose the latter. So says the geographer.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:45 pm

      Ooh, this is fabulous! Thanks, River. I would love to spend a month doing this trip, but we really only have five or six days, so unfortunately there will be some haste involved. Boy, I really love these ideas, though. They are in my notes. Thank you, thank you!

      Reply
  3. Steph says

    5 July 2018 at 1:26 am

    If there was one thing – just one thing – GOSH. That’s a toughie Ro. But here goes – geography is destiny.

    So all of those wide open spaces reflect the distance between us and inside of you.

    I’m curious to see how you encounter this in the world. I’m grateful to be following you on your journey. Talk to strangers and have fun!

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:31 pm

      Oh, how lovely! Thank you! I intend to talk to ALL the strangers. Whether they like it or not. x

      Reply
  4. Martha Beck says

    5 July 2018 at 1:27 am

    Can’t wait to see the continent through your bleary eyeballs and quirky brain! Onward!

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:27 pm

      Thank you, sugarplum!

      Reply
  5. Sean Mangan says

    5 July 2018 at 1:45 am

    Awaiting further developments with considerable interest. Sure hope this blog doesn’t affect the progress of any novels you might have in mind to write. XXXX

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:26 pm

      Hoping it will grease all the rusty engine parts and get all the words flowing! Thanks, Papa! xoxoxo

      Reply
  6. Sarah F says

    5 July 2018 at 2:56 am

    So pumped to hear about the States as seen through your eyes Ro. I’m buckled in.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:23 pm

      Woohoo! Thanks! I went to see if WIS was still active the other day, and did some back-reading for inspiration.

      Reply
  7. Lara says

    5 July 2018 at 3:16 am

    You need to know how to say hello and greet people in different areas. For example, you can get do overly friendly better Georgia than Maine. The Bible Belt deserves its rap (I lived there) so praising the Lord for the weather is allowed, but would get you serious side-eye in Philly. (Mostly don’t say hello in New Jersey, at all.) The middle states are reeeaalllyy big and empty; you can take your time there saying hello.

    Also the mountains are very different as you go. The Rockies are sharp and purposeful and intensely present. The Appalachians are soft, like old worry stones.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:30 pm

      Damn, Lara. I feel like I just want you to write this blog. That’s gorgeous. And the greeting thing is a hot track. I might try out different things in different places, play the foreigner card, see what happens! I’m as interested in getting it wrong as getting it right! “…like old worry stones.” Holding this in my heart today. And you.

      Reply
  8. Carol says

    5 July 2018 at 5:09 am

    I will read with interest as I’m still recovering from my first sojourn on US shores, possibly because the first conversation that hit my ears as I got off the plane was one woman, who worked at the airport, telling another woman customer to ‘f*** off you *c***. It was such a shock. Pouring blessings your way Rowan as you show up here. Xoxo

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:23 pm

      Right! One of thing things that’s been in my mind is the cultural comfort with conflict, especially low-grade conflict between strangers. (What you’re describing is obviously a bit more intense!) Lots of love to you, Carol. I will be replying to your email VERY SOON! xooxo

      Reply
  9. Uncle Jim says

    5 July 2018 at 10:09 am

    General Custer led the 7th Calvary

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:22 pm

      On it! Thanks!

      Reply
  10. James Healy says

    5 July 2018 at 10:46 am

    Earlier this week I said something like this to Ange, “Hey, I think Rowan might be moving Pennsylvania. I’d love to hear more about why and how she finds it. Sounds like a big move from California”

    Seems like you heard me 🙂

    Enjoy the road trip, and I can’t wait to hear how it goes.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 3:19 pm

      … And I thought, “I bet James wants to hear all about my trip!”

      Thanks so much, it is LOVELY to see your face and name. See you in Melbs soon!

      Reply
  11. Trish Hammond says

    5 July 2018 at 4:39 pm

    Will love eacorting you on your journey. Thrilling times ahead.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 7:35 pm

      Thank you so much, Trish! I will love having your traveling expertise along for the ride. (Should be less eventful than some of your India drives?!) xo

      Reply
  12. Freyja says

    5 July 2018 at 5:02 pm

    Only stay at places with y. steam box hook ups! (and all will be well)

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 7:35 pm

      Haha, thanks! 🙂

      Reply
  13. Liz Wiltzen says

    5 July 2018 at 5:42 pm

    Oh I am waiting with bated breath to see what you see Ro! Despite being Canadian, I find every time I am in conversation about the current escapades in the States, I say ‘We, us, our…’, so I am weighing in as a Canmercan.

    Here’s what I know about the place – there are countless good hearts beating in that vast country. I’m building my own collection and my world is elevated because of them. Can’t wait to hear about your growing collection. 🙂

    Reply
    • rowan says

      5 July 2018 at 7:35 pm

      Thank you, Liz. I’m absolutely convinced of the presence of those hearts (well, I’m already surrounded by them!), and in fact that’s really what this project is. Finding them, sharing their stories. I’d love for you to come along with me. xo

      Reply
      • Liz Wiltzen says

        6 July 2018 at 12:41 am

        I will be there, like gum on you shoe!

        Reply
        • rowan says

          6 July 2018 at 8:15 pm

          <3

          Reply
  14. Tricia Elliott says

    5 July 2018 at 8:58 pm

    Ro, I can’t wait to see our country through your eyes! When I think about how to respond to your question, a BK quote comes up: we all love you, we just don’t know it yet.

    Any chance you’re driving near Minnesota?

    Reply
    • rowan says

      6 July 2018 at 8:17 pm

      Thank you, dear Tricia! That’s a great feeling.

      Alas, we’ll be driving pretty far south of Minnesota… are you there? I thought you were in Alaska.

      Reply
      • Tricia Elliott says

        6 July 2018 at 9:57 pm

        I am in Alaska, for the moment. Next week my girls and I will be in MN visiting family and friends (I grew up in Duluth). It’s an endearing place — I expect my accent will come back and we’ll eat hot dish and jello salad and generally avoid overt emotional expression… I exaggerate, but there’s some truth to all this. Anyhow, I figured you’d be taking a more southerly route, but I had to ask

        Reply
        • rowan says

          7 July 2018 at 5:57 pm

          Ha! This is great. I hope you have an enjoyable trip… and don’t shirk on the jello salad. It helps to deal with the emotional emptiness… 😀

          Wish we could see you. It’ll happen at some point, I am 100% sure.

          Reply
  15. Rebecca Tolin says

    5 July 2018 at 10:05 pm

    Act is if you love America no matter what! It seems to be an American.
    Fun and zany travels to you and the fam, Ro! This patchwork of peculiar states is lucky to have you. XO

    Reply
    • Rebecca Tolin says

      5 July 2018 at 10:07 pm

      It seems to be an American thing, that is!

      Reply
      • rowan says

        6 July 2018 at 8:17 pm

        Ha! Love it. Thanks, Rebecca!

        Reply
  16. Sean Mangan says

    5 July 2018 at 10:53 pm

    John Prine. Mark Twain. John Hartford. Annie Proulx. Ben Franklin. Will Rogers. Eugene Debs. Ursula K LeGuin. Raymond Chandler. Donna Tartt. Muddy Waters. Dave Van Ronk. John Steinbeck. Robert Pirsig. Ernest Hemingway, in spite of everything. Clarence Darrow. Bob Dylan, in spite of everything. Toni Morrison. Jesse Winchester. Aretha Franklin. Janis Joplin. Jack Kerouac. Ella Fitzgerald. Billie Holiday. Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks. Richard Feynman. Buckminster Fuller. Kris Kristofferson. Guy Clark. Bonnie Raitt. Emily Dickinson. Dorothy Parker. Randy Newman. Jack London. Bessie Smith. Harper Lee. Barbara Kingsolver. Peter Matthiessen. Taj Mahal. Utah Phillips. Gillian Welch. Gary Snyder. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Herman Melville. Betty Friedan. Joyce Carol Oates. Charles Bukowski. Townes Van Zandt. Kate Wolf. How can you not love a country like that?

    Reply
    • rowan says

      6 July 2018 at 8:18 pm

      You make a solid point. Well argued.

      I couldn’t, it looks like.

      Reply
  17. Sean Mangan says

    5 July 2018 at 10:55 pm

    Whoops. Lyle Lovett.

    Reply
  18. Kat says

    6 July 2018 at 9:59 pm

    Download the Hamilton cast album. It’s good road trip music and there’s a lot of America up in it.

    Reply
    • rowan says

      7 July 2018 at 5:56 pm

      Ooooh, fab tip! Hopefully we’ll get to see it soon in New York. Is it easy to follow the album without having seen the musical?

      Reply
      • Kat says

        9 July 2018 at 12:09 am

        I’d say it’s easier to follow on the album than in person, given that the theater I saw it in was not acoustically optimized for fast rapping. There is really only one part of the stage production left out of the album, so you’re good. Do monitor in the second act whether you can drive well while weeping, however!

        Reply
        • rowan says

          9 July 2018 at 2:32 am

          This is excellent advice. I’m so excited! Ready to weep and LEARN.

          Reply
  19. Paul Werner says

    14 July 2018 at 6:06 am

    Keep it coming

    Reply
  20. Cid says

    11 May 2019 at 2:32 pm

    Wish I had read this before I met you- I would have asked you to tell me all about your cross-country road trip… I love adventure stories!

    As for something I think you need to live in America? I good sense of self, which you have 😉 I’m not sure what else—I live in California afterall!

    Reply
    • Ali says

      25 October 2019 at 7:50 pm

      I’m so embarrassed as I feel terribly nosy and I love you all individually but I’ve been trying to figure out the family set up. I ***think*** I get it!? Anyways, Godspeed all. Xxxx

      Reply

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Words fail me. So I go back to the source. Words fail me. So I go back to the source.
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Every night after finishing writing, I published a short post about the day’s happenings. These ended up becoming a fun record of the process. ⁠
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Institutions are places where we get indoctrinated Institutions are places where we get indoctrinated and trained by the culture to perpetuate its norms. Like food processors for people, institutions digest all the bits of a person they can use—conformity, blind obedience—and excrete everything else as waste—your soul, your personality, your joy—because these things don’t help them run effectively. In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Rowan discuss ways we can opt out of this institutional processing to embrace our freedom and connect with our true purpose. Be sure to listen!

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Today’s Lesson From Little (which I’m applying Today’s Lesson From Little (which I’m applying to everything from professional tribulations to health).

Take the materials that are used to constrain you, and make them wings.

Also—any chance you get—sit in a puddle.*

*This one applies more neatly to my professional life than you might imagine.
Here’s your Fiction Friday GOAT QUOTE! This is f Here’s your Fiction Friday GOAT QUOTE! This is from my yet-to-be-published novel, Goat Street. ✨📖✨
Let’s throw it back! This is my weekly revisitin Let’s throw it back! This is my weekly revisiting of the writing of my first draft of Goat Street seven years ago. I took myself (and my mum!) on an intensive writing retreat and finished the draft in 30 days. (The rewrites took *just* a little longer.)⁠
⁠
Every night after finishing writing, I published a short blog post about the day’s happenings. These ended up becoming a fun record of the process. ⁠
⁠
Happy throwback Thursday! Take a ride to 2015 with me…⁠
⁠
*******************⁠
April 13, 2015⁠
DAY 3: Word count 3208⁠
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Every day children show us who they really are, an Every day children show us who they really are, and often it’s not what we could have predicted (or even wanted). It can be difficult to keep ourselves from mapping out our kids’ futures for them, but things will pop up to remind us that life may have different plans for them. In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro talk about children’s individuality (including their own daughter’s unexpected athleticism) and how letting go of control can help us culture-proof our children—and ourselves. Be sure to listen!

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Here we go! New pen, shiny new manuscript, and (al Here we go! New pen, shiny new manuscript, and (almost a) new lease on life!

This is the first day since getting Covid that I’ve been able to contemplate more than dragging self and family through the day as best I could. But today I have a treat. My brilliant mother, @paulamkeogh has written a novel called GEORGIA SALAMANDER—and I get to read it! 

What could be a better way to begin what will hopefully be a short convalescence than to read this manuscript?

(By the way, Paula is also an acclaimed memoirist and takes on a few select clients for her Memoir Mentor services. DM me if you have a memoir in you and would like to get on Paula’s waiting list.)
Here’s our Fiction Friday GOAT QUOTE! This is fr Here’s our Fiction Friday GOAT QUOTE! This is from my yet-to-be-published novel, Goat Street. ✨📖✨
Let’s throw it back! This is my weekly revisitin Let’s throw it back! This is my weekly revisiting of the writing of my first draft of Goat Street seven years ago. I took myself (and my mum!) on an intensive writing retreat and finished the draft in 30 days. (The rewrites took *just* a little longer.)⁠
⁠
Every night after finishing writing, I published a short blog post about the day’s happenings. These ended up becoming a fun record of the process. ⁠
⁠
Happy throwback Thursday! Let’s take a ride to 2015 with me…⁠
⁠
*******************⁠
April 11, 2015⁠
DAY 2: Word count 3002⁠
⁠
Nice day for it, though, between hailstones and icy winds. Snow on the mountains. Fire in the heart.⁠
We got Covid. Sorry for all the unanswered emails! We got Covid. Sorry for all the unanswered emails! On yet another horrific, impossibly painful week to live in this country, we’re focusing on being close and healing.
Here’s a little share for Fiction Friday—a tas Here’s a little share for Fiction Friday—a taste of Goat Street, the novel I’ve been working on for three or four centuries and which is out on submission with editors right now. Please hurl some good publishing vibes and spells into the void for me, friends. ✨📖✨
Let’s throw it back! Seven years ago I wrote the Let’s throw it back! Seven years ago I wrote the first draft of my yet-to-be-published novel, Goat Street, in the wild west coast of Ireland. It took a month. I unwound at the end of each day of writing with a little blog post, which I published on Facebook. These started very short, but gradually grew longer as friends started getting involved with the happenings in “the westernmost house in Europe”—which is also a key location in the book.

For Throwback Thursday, I’m going to be posting these little blogs here over the next weeks. Let me know if you enjoy them! 

DAY 1: April 10, 2015
WORD COUNT 2675
YESTERDAY I BOUGHT PLANTS Now, seven new green co YESTERDAY I BOUGHT PLANTS

Now, seven new green companions are living in our city mouse house and I’m finally perfectly in love with the space. We’ve been moving into this apartment in slow motion since the beginning of the year, trekking back and forth from our country mouse house in Pennsylvania with suitcases. 

Here’s the thing: Without plants, a room has too many right angles. Without plants, I feel less human. These plants give meaning to the skyscrapers out the window. They are the rule that proves the city’s exception. They are my friends. 

Suddenly, this is a space where I can write.

Writers: what do you need in a space before you can go deep?
UNDOING THE DAY-CRAM A couple of days ago, I was UNDOING THE DAY-CRAM

A couple of days ago, I was reflecting on the need to build some more exercise into my week. Nothing extreme: just get this creaky old body moving around a bit.

This realization led to me pulling out my calendar to see when said exercise could happen. Everything must be scheduled—which is its own form of disempowerment—but that’s another rant for another day.

The point of THIS rant is the thought process which began unrolling in my mind as I looked at the neat rows of rectangles that represent hours in my days.

Immediately, I looked for things I was already planning to do, and began assessing which of these could be combined with exercise. Could I make that call while on the elliptical without my colleague thinking I was a heavy-breathing prank caller? Could I listen to that recording on the rower? Would it be weird if I showed up to that Zoom meeting on a treadmill?

It never occurred to me to look for time slots that weren’t already full and put exercise in there as an activity to be fully present for. Part of that is that there are very few such slots in my days. But another part of it is this insidious cultural pattern that says, “Optimize!” “Streamline!” “Synergize!”

So my wild inventure for this week is to stop the day-cram. To allow myself to follow my own instincts about what my body and heart and mind and soul need. To bring music back into my days and banish the ravenous productivity monster from my mind—at least for a week.

Who’s with me? Where in your life is this spacious inventure most needed?

** This is an excerpt of a longer essay that will be sent out to all my lovely Substack subscribers (along with lots of other goodies) next Tuesday. Subscribe via the link in my bio and join the wonderful Wild Inventures community. **

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