I just heard two consecutive stories on NPR this morning.

The first was a story about a little town in Georgia where Oliver Hardy was born (but his family moved away when he was two months old!). The town has capitalized on this, and now it’s the home of both the first AND the second Laurel & Hardy museums. The first is the official one. The second is a labor of love created in a backyard in town. The guy who built it moved from Minnesota, and when the reporter pointed out to him that although Oliver Hardy may have been born there, his family was only there for two months, the guy replied, “It’s not where you live, but where you were born that counts. You can only be born in one place.”

Next story: Billy Bragg, the English singer-songwriter. He was asked about the song “England, Half-English”, about how England is becoming a multi-cultural melting pot, just as America likes to think of itself, and he’s a big believer in the importance of that. Society is much bigger than each respective piece of dirt we all live on, and the more ‘melting’ that goes on, the better, as far as he’s concerned. Because “it’s not where you’re born, but where you choose to be” that is so vital, and makes you who you are, and more importantly, makes the society what it is.

Such an interesting juxtaposition.

And for the record, I’m with Billy. It’s what you choose to make of your life, rather than a random spot on the earth–wherever your parents happened to be at that moment–that makes the difference.

I realize that’s a very American, Occidental attitude. Many people throughout the world don’t have that luxury. People from everywhere try to get to this country, so that even if THEY can never be citizens here, their CHILDREN can be born here so THEY can have the luxury to think these things.

That being said, I still believe it. :) If you have big enough ideas, it doesn’t matter where you’re from.

A line from the old Sting song “Englishman in New York” just came to mind, and seemed apropos to all this: “Be yourself, no matter what they say.”