海角大神

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton running? What about Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, Rand Paul? The 2016 presidential race is already generating buzz. Meanwhile, can you (without turning to Google) name the prime minister of Sweden? The president of Indonesia?

Readers outside the United States occasionally nudge us to remember that America is not the center of the world. Imagine how it seems to someone in Canada, Japan, Australia, Germany, the Philippines, or any of the 190 other countries to face a steady stream of news about American controversies, concerns, Kardashians, and political races that are more than three years away.聽

We get it. The Monitor鈥檚 audience from the moment of its founding in 1908 was 鈥渁ll mankind.鈥� Ideally, we would publish in many languages and give equal weight to news from all parts of the world. Practically, we鈥檙e a long way from that. Our American roots are real. We are US-based, and staffed largely by Americans. Most of our readers are in the US. And for better or worse, the US is by far the world鈥檚 biggest newsmaker.聽

To compensate, we strive for international perspective 鈥� and have done so since our founding. It is why we have correspondents that we turn to all over the globe. In a Monitor cover story, we take you around the world in search of the best ideas in education. If you鈥檝e read the Monitor for a while, you鈥檒l recall that we鈥檝e applied this international perspective to issues ranging from the fight against terrorism to the fostering of innovation, from competing systems for national health care to global manufacturing and trade.

But I鈥檒l be the first to admit that there鈥檚 a parochial angle to our international perspective. Education: The American school year is beginning. Terrorism: The Boston Marathon bombings. Health care: 鈥淥bamacare.鈥� Supply chains: America鈥檚 voracious consumers. (As author Bill Bryson puts it: 鈥淭he whole of the global economy is based on supplying the cravings of two percent of the world鈥檚 population.鈥�) If there鈥檚 no such thing as pure international perspective 鈥� no place to stand on the planet that is not, at heart, local 鈥� the striving for international perspective is undoubtedly healthy. It broadens our thinking. The 50 states of the United States of America are sometimes called 鈥渓aboratories of democracy.鈥� Different ideas are tried in these local jurisdictions. Things that seem good go national. Things that don鈥檛 stay local. The world鈥檚 195 nations are laboratories, too.聽

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As summer winds down (OK, as Northern Hemisphere summer winds down), most of us 鈥� no matter how far removed from our school days we are 鈥� feel that mixture of dread and excitement. Leaves are still green, but the chlorophyll factories are shutting down. The new generation of ducks and geese are airborne. Winter is not far away.聽

That鈥檚 the dread. The excitement is fall 鈥� dramatic, mellow, bracing, gentle. Fall doesn鈥檛 have the promise of arrival that spring has. It has the bittersweetness of departure. The poet William Cullen Bryant called it 鈥渢he year鈥檚 last, loveliest smile.鈥�

A few years ago, we asked readers to send us their fall foliage photos. We saw gorgeous images from New England, of course, but because Monitor readers are far-flung, we saw photos from the Pacific Northwest, Europe, and China. The best perspective, though, came from New Zealand. Buds were opening, blades were sprouting. It was spring there.聽

John Yemma is editor of the Monitor. You can reach him at editor@csmonitor.com.