"Us" & "Them"

I thoroughly enjoy this moment.  

Sometimes I don't like talking about memories in the past tense.  If I am still thinking of a memory then that moment hasn't ceased to impact me and still somehow, maybe, that moment lives on in some alternative way just because I am thinking of it.  Therefore, I enjoy this moment.

After sneaking this picture I planted myself on a bench next to them and ate my usual lunch which typically consists of a sandwich and a carrot or an apple.  I forget which exactly it was for this day.  I do remember the sun was out and it called out to me to let it in, so I unzipped my jacket and opened it wide so my torso could soak up it's heat before the rain began again.

There are many things that separated me from these men that day.  

Physical distance, their bench and mine.  Company, they had some and I had the birds.  

Age, language, gender, etc., but the last, I'll admit inferred, separation between me and these men 

is where we are "from".  

Our nationality separates us.  

They are Portuguese.  I am American.

We take pride in the land left inside the borders, sometimes natural and sometimes drawn by man, that create difference between peoples--that create "us" and "them".  

Why do we do this?

-T

& thank you to Michelle for convincing me to post this unformed thought.