This note from The Land Down Under made me think about national identity. Not in the way we think about other people, but how we see ourselves.
Now we are all aware of the world surrounding us, but I think that not so long ago, people living in small countries like – say – Denmark were more aware of other countries and more likely to travel, than people living in countries large enough to be their own continent.
Throughout history, Danes have been travelling. It was a Dane who discovered Greenland – and America (long after the Inuit and the Native Americans discovered the places first offcourse).
But have we become so fine travellers that we tend to loose our origin? Do we need a song like this one to remind us, who we are, so we’re able to find our way back – home?
I do see the contradiction: me talking about Danish identity, and writing about it in English. But this isn’t about Danish identity – it’s about having a place (geographical or at least as a state of mind) you belong to.