Letter Excerpts

I am kind of divided, at this point, with the British Isles. Years ago, I really had a serious love affair, but now after Brexit I am sort of..not so sure. I have a deep love for continental lower Europe or w/e you would call it: Italy, Germany, Spain, and so on. I also like Finland and all those places very much, and think of them often. 

The British Isles stand out from all of this, and I do not understand why they want to separate themselves. For me, as an American born, I have been very sad ever since I realized I do not really have any rights to live anywere in Europe beyond the VISA period/ 70 days or whatever it is. I do not like the idea, at all, that I am "trapped" in a country that, beyond just a few states, is really not filled up with much. I like the States, but the middle of the country is very much empty, and so too is much of the South, and reading history as I have, via the msuic and books, has made me hyper aware of many European cities that are, for me as an Americna, basically on anothet planet.

 I say this to explain that, as an American, it sounds absolutely incredble to me to think that people from Europe can freely switch between all those countries...to me the EU seems incredible. So for a long time I was very jealous of Brits et cetera (whose stories I would of course come across in English) when I would read about how they could go live so easily in Italy or spain and so on. I was deeply envious...angry even.

 Hence you can imagine my SHOCK when I heard that the entire country suddenly wanted to rip itself out of the EU. I couldn't fathom it then; and I still cannot fathom it now. I would probably do some pretty desperate things to have the right to live in the EU. Of course there is a huge bureaucratic process I could go through, with visa and all of that, but I am not going to do that. I am just talking simple basic citizenship. It is not a reality for me, or any other Americans. Our families made a decision to live here, and now we must live here forever. There exists a way to get it via bloodline with Italy, though this seems far from me as well and I have researched and come up short. It is too bad. But agaiN i say this all to you, just to express...I cannot fathom why Brexit would occur. It is a sad thing to me. 

For when I imagine the ability to travel freely without passport through all th countries of the EU, I feel like a man who just got the ability to fly to paradise.... For me it is just a dream.. all of Europe is just like an imaginary place.