It takes me a while to think where I hold citizenship since even the idea of a group holding some sort of power over me seems upsetting. When I was living in Europe, for instance, I was shocked to find out that as a US citizen I still had pay taxes for money I was making in another country and paying taxes in that country. Very quickly I found out that if you’re making less than a threshold of income the US waives the tax, but still, it just felt bizarre to realize even if you weren’t enjoying US citizenship benefits they’d still make you pay for them.
It was fascinating to discover that my American boss in Switzerland hadn’t been US taxes for over ten years (she was making above the threshold) and was so upset about having to pay back taxes that she tried to give up her citizenship. She soon found out that America does not let go of you so easily, and even after paying off lawyers and filing expensive paperwork she’d still have to pay her back taxes. Oftentimes citizenship is not so easy to escape –even if it’s very informal.
As for other informal citizenships, it’s pretty clear I belong in the Country of Readers. It’s hard to find anyone who reads as much as I do, even though I read much less than I used to. If I could have buckets of free time I probably would read most of the day. One of the best things about living in Europe was having 7 weeks of vacation, where I’d spend all of August reading maybe a book a day. It was such a wonderful feeling arriving in America, going into a well-stocked American library and taking out stacks of books and proceeding to sit around reading fiction, non-fiction, young adult, graphic novels, magazines. I will never give up this citizenship, it is truly who I am and would rather do this than almost anything else. Sometimes I worry that I actually should be ‘doing things’ rather than reading about things, but I think what maybe is true about me is that reading seems more a real experience than actual experience. I get more out of it. And as I get older I’m glad to know I can fall into someone else’s world that easily.
I used to think I was a Citizen of Science, but now I’m not so sure. Same thing for Art. I love science and art but don’t know if I belong to that world, I worry that I don’t believe in those worlds fully, that they’ve let me down since their rules don’t make sense and I don’t fit in enough. Maybe I will come to them when I stop being so concerned about rules, since citizenship doesn’t really have so many guidelines anyway.
As I write this I’m trying to work up the courage to say I’m a Citizen of Writing, since I have written a lot in the past, and I want to do more in the future. But writing doesn’t come easily. I want it to be as wonderful as the books I read, and I don’t understand how that happens. It doesn’t like you can just read a lot and know how it’s done. It doesn’t seem like it can be taught very easily. Either you just find you can do it or you don’t. But I haven’t given up yet, and maybe that’s what I love about this citizenship, that it’s one I believe in striving for. That I would take a solemn oath for. (And I am not so afraid of its rules that I can’t let a participle dangle).
— siobhan
It was fascinating to discover that my American boss in Switzerland hadn’t been US taxes for over ten years (she was making above the threshold) and was so upset about having to pay back taxes that she tried to give up her citizenship. She soon found out that America does not let go of you so easily, and even after paying off lawyers and filing expensive paperwork she’d still have to pay her back taxes. Oftentimes citizenship is not so easy to escape –even if it’s very informal.
As for other informal citizenships, it’s pretty clear I belong in the Country of Readers. It’s hard to find anyone who reads as much as I do, even though I read much less than I used to. If I could have buckets of free time I probably would read most of the day. One of the best things about living in Europe was having 7 weeks of vacation, where I’d spend all of August reading maybe a book a day. It was such a wonderful feeling arriving in America, going into a well-stocked American library and taking out stacks of books and proceeding to sit around reading fiction, non-fiction, young adult, graphic novels, magazines. I will never give up this citizenship, it is truly who I am and would rather do this than almost anything else. Sometimes I worry that I actually should be ‘doing things’ rather than reading about things, but I think what maybe is true about me is that reading seems more a real experience than actual experience. I get more out of it. And as I get older I’m glad to know I can fall into someone else’s world that easily.
I used to think I was a Citizen of Science, but now I’m not so sure. Same thing for Art. I love science and art but don’t know if I belong to that world, I worry that I don’t believe in those worlds fully, that they’ve let me down since their rules don’t make sense and I don’t fit in enough. Maybe I will come to them when I stop being so concerned about rules, since citizenship doesn’t really have so many guidelines anyway.
As I write this I’m trying to work up the courage to say I’m a Citizen of Writing, since I have written a lot in the past, and I want to do more in the future. But writing doesn’t come easily. I want it to be as wonderful as the books I read, and I don’t understand how that happens. It doesn’t like you can just read a lot and know how it’s done. It doesn’t seem like it can be taught very easily. Either you just find you can do it or you don’t. But I haven’t given up yet, and maybe that’s what I love about this citizenship, that it’s one I believe in striving for. That I would take a solemn oath for. (And I am not so afraid of its rules that I can’t let a participle dangle).
— siobhan
I love your idea of a Country of Readers and being a citizen there! Seven weeks of vacation to read sounds heavenly, indeed!
ReplyDeleteI, too, am a citizen of the Country of Readers- all benefits and no taxes (except, the cost of books and shelf space). I like the way you thought and wrote out of the box. Please keep writing!
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