Driving by a drive thru coffee kiosk
I saw him
Bending over with his tape measure
And tool belt
Working on a deck remodel.
And I thought
I love guys that can fix things
Build things
Line things up
And make them better.
What would we do without them?
Live with broken down parts?
Make do?
Fall apart?
Just buy new stuff?
The quintessential American male.
The kind who won the west
Homesteaded the prairies
Cut roads out of the forest
And tamed the wilderness.
And then I amended my thought.
This kind of man
Comes in many varieties.
Mexican, Serbian, Vietnamese,
Italian, Australian, and American.
But there is something about a country
Founded on liberty
And opportunity
Burnished by rugged individualism
A country of wide frontiers
That attracts these types.
Brings out the latent energy in all of us
And allows such an ethos to flourish.
Even when, the west already won,
It means adding an outdoor terrace to a coffee cart.
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