Napoleon Bonaparte, a short-sighted short man

I was looking at a map of the world yesterday and noticing how small Europe is compared to the US. My wife, the divine Mrs. L, and I measured the distance between London and France and found it be approximately the same as between Tulsa and Dallas. We found that Washington, Oregon and Idaho combined are about the same size as France. That's right... three states that define a very small, specific region of the US is the same size as the largest single state in the EU. Alaska is bigger than almost the whole of Europe.

We also looked at latitudes. England is on the same latitudes as Northern Canada. I was frankly surprised by that one. Texas is the same distance from the equator as Egypt and all of North Africa. You thought we were kidding about the summer heat.

When you consider that England is so far north and so shockingly small, compared to the great Lone Star State... it's no wonder that the pilgrims thought this was the promised land. They went from the east coast to the Smoky mountains and it was already more land, more unspoiled nature, more wildlife, more wilderness than they had ever seen in their lives. The dark forests of Germany and the countryside of France or Italy could not compare to the virgin lands of the new world.

Now, we've filled up the continent... compared to those early days before Lewis (a distant ancestor) and Clark took a legendary trip out west. We've got cities on both coasts. We've fenced all the land and we've farmed it or ranched it. Now, a friend from NYC visits me here and just can't imagine the space we have in our own backyard. She says, "In NYC 5,000 people would live in the space of your backyard."

Give me land... lots of land and a sunny sky. Europe's got nothing that I want. NYC, Houston, LA, Chicago... kryptonite for my superman soul. Thank you Thomas Jefferson for making the Louisiana Purchase. Thank you to everyone in the Alamo for taking Texas.