Europeans and Kansas

This past weekend, I went to a Christmas party thrown by one of my Irish colleagues and her Irish roommate. Part of the merriment of the party was that we lecturers at Nanterre could finally relax and actually talk to each other about stuff other than school. And we got to talk to people that we just never see at the university because of our schedules. Naturally, everyone still wanted to know exactly where everyone else was from. (Probably so we can make little judgments or little jokes about it.) Although I've lived in Wisconsin for the past several years, I always tell new acquaintances that I'm from Kansas. It's still "home" to me, as it's where my family and some very dear friends are. Anyone from Kansas can imagine the kinds of responses I got, each one different.

The Irish roommate asked if I knew Clark Kent by chance. This is the first time anyone has asked me this and being a superhero fan, I was tickled. This has to be the best reaction anyone has had about my origins.

The two Irish friends who lived in the country and who were prone to sheep invading their yards said that to them Kansas seemed like such a magical place. Magical!?! Well, they explained, it was a place they associated with the Wizard of Oz. Of course it was magical. I think this is possibly the nicest version of the "Dorothy and Toto" response that I have ever gotten. I decided I liked these Irish folks.

The last response came from one of my English colleagues who had perhaps the most critical question to ask me. "Kansas, eh? How's evolution going down there?" Sigh. Fair enough question, but I cringed as I explained to the other Europeans about the creationists who want to have religion taught in science classes. They were both amused and horrified I think.

And so I've concluded from all this that in the European mind, Kansas must indeed be a mystical place. Although a seemingly humble state often represented in films as nothing more than farmhouses, livestock and fields, it is Superman's home. Dorothy and Toto were whisked away from Kansas to an magical kingdom with talking lions and tin men. Even The Onion compared Kansas to the Bermuda Triangle at one point. And of course, there's creationism. Who would have thought that my home state would seem so fantastical to the folks on the other side of the pond?