America is a disorganized kitchen. In the center stands a grandiose stove, sporting a pot left on for so long that the boiling contents overflow to touch and influence the silverwares surrounding it. The mysterious mixture is a conglomerate of things thrown in without much thought. A sprinkle of creativity, a dab of ideas, as well as drops of knowledge, talents, and personalities all mixed into the creamy soup of various different cultures. Creativity gives the spicy taste, making the otherwise bland mixture exciting. The ideas and knowledge works together as salt and pepper to enhance the flavor. Talents and personality are the vegetable and meat that makes up the main ingredients, chopped in haste so that not one is the same. All this is encompassed by the swirl of the cultures which leaves no place untouched. The soup, when made correctly, has the capability of producing a fragrant and delicious aroma unlike any other. Cooked wrong, however, it can bring disastrous effects.


America is the untidy kitchen, with items strewn around and without people to watch permanently to make sure that nothing is out of place or misused. The soup, however brilliant, if left unguarded or if the recipe is not correctly followed, has the potential to burn. The ingredients, once so wonderful together, have a way of disagreeing. The contents of the soup soon begin to clash with each other, making conflicts. When an abundance of ideas is added, they begin to collide with the taste of the soup. These ideas, if left in for too long and become unchangeable, begin to cause chaos and war. When this happens, America, the great kitchen, becomes saturated with the burning smells of the War on Terror, the scandals, and the unpleasantness of the meat and vegetables gone wrong. At that point, America is filled with hardships and crimes caused by the unhappy people experiencing the soup first hand. It is the stress and the worry, the work and the people who are willing to give their best to make the kitchen better. It is also the hope, the ambition, and the spirit of the ones who are trying to renew it. America is the celebration, the happiness, and the joy when the soup does not spoil. It is a whole, the entire soup, yet it is made of separate individuals, cultures, ideas, beliefs, and ingredients that enhance it and make it what it is.