TELL ME WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS. What does the rest of the world think of Americans? On Thursday you’ll get the next installment of “Judica Me Deus (Judge Me, O God)”–but for today, you just get this snapshot from an ongoing story I’m working on. The story is called Sleep of the Just. Someday, when I’m famous, you can say you contributed, if you criticize this bit!

“Tight jeans. Fat people.” Mark laughs. “Fat people in tight jeans. … Casual dress, carelessness, indignation. That’s one of your big attractions, you get indignant about everything; and one of your least attractive features, too, when you get indignant on your own behalf. Self-righteous. Everything’s new to you. Provincial. Everyone’s trying to catch your attention, and then, when they have it, they’re terrified of what you’ll do. And terrified that you’ll look away…

“Confident. Ingenious. Did I say fat already? Brash. Unconscious of the social roles they’re playing, the degree of conformity in their individualism.

“Not ironic. Generous and friendly. –I was on a train once, from D.C. to New York City, and listened to these strangers making friends over a couple bags of potato chips, comparing their brands. They were all black–a single man, a man and his daughter, and a woman. They were chuckling and passing the bags back and forth–the man and woman were sharing with the father and daughter, who didn’t have any chips. ‘Mine’s wavy Utz,’ I remember the woman had wavy Utz, and the man had wavy Lays, and they were laughing and talking about which ones were saltier and which ones were better.

“And then the men speculated about how fast the train was moving, and so forth. And by the time we reached Baltimore, these complete strangers were like old friends, the train was their front porch.

“That, I think, was very American. …The man next to me, also black but, I think, a recent immigrant from Africa, was reading a slim book on evangelism. ‘The Key to the Soul,’ something like that. Bringing souls to Christ. And that was very American too, of course.

“A very moral country–God help anyone who gets in your way.”