“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
This morning on the way to church, I found myself reminiscing. Not happy memories really. Sad. Our dog Ginger Pye, died a few years back and I really am not sure what brought that to my remembrance, but I found myself thinking that if we had just stayed with her that night after her surgery, she might have made it. I don’t know if that is actually true. But somehow I was feeling a bit melancholy and then it transferred to homesickness for the small West Texas town where we spent more than 11 years of our lives. Ginger is buried there, in the back yard in the corner by the small oak tree. And while I miss her, there is something deeper that I’m grieving.
Now we have lived in the islands, the Hawaiian Islands, for about 18 months. There are days when I love it and days when I am ready to pack it all up and move back if I wasn’t petrified the movers would break all my stuff. Maybe move to a bigger city than where we came from. But Angelo, despite it’s scrubby barrenness, holds some special milestones for our family. Owning our first home. Bringing our firstborn home after his birth in Nebraska. Our youngest two children being born in the same hospital, delivered by the same doctor etc. Remodeling both the homes we owned there. I am especially attached to our second home but have been known to drive past our old home with a wistful glance, upon occasion. I don’t miss the intense summer heat, the droughts and the small town politics. But moving to Hawaii, as it may surprise you, has been far from paradise.
As I brushed away my tears, I found myself wondering why I was missing Texas so much and I realized that it is the general tone of friendliness there. Going next door to my neighbor to borrow sugar or an egg. Having the kids play on the cul-de-sac without worrying where they might be. Knowing that traffic would never be a problem . Waving to the stranger driving down your street just to be polite. A bit larger than Mayberry with a landscape not nearly as charming, but still the perfunctory friendliness matters to me more than I thought it did.
Hawaii, on the other hand, is indeed quite beautiful but sometimes, as a youthful grocery store bagger mentioned in a brief conversation, the people mar the beauty. In her exact words, “The people make this place ugly.” And she has a point. There is a lot of hard feeling about the “take over” of this island decades ago–near a century, if I’m not mistaken. And while I agree, in the same way I agree about the way Native Americans were treated, I can’t do anything to remedy this unfairness. All I can do is try to be kind and brighten my own little corner of the world. Which is not always easy when your neighbors scarcely talk to you.
Some people on the island are friendly, mostly Christians of all races. I must mention that beloved Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch who was forced from her throne, had a gracious Christian attitude about the whole sordid affair . She is really a fascinating lady and I feel a special unexplainable closeness with her. But the general feeling is that Hawaii needs to be restored to kingdom status. It’s not just a few people. The have a committee called the Office of Hawaiian affairs and it is one of their goals to return sovereignty to the Island nation. And this attitude makes me feel like a foreigner sometimes. So while the windward mountains are breathtaking, the ocean has turned me into a beach lover and plumeria blossoms intoxicate me… I remain in search of Mayberry.
I am an old-fashioned, book-loving, health-nutty, home educator who may romanticize the past a bit, but I want to live with other birds of a feather. I long for a day not tainted with an onslaught of technology (as helpful and convenient as it can be), where neighbors knew and respected each other and where I am not raising my kids against the culture. Where people may disagree but not be hateful and common sense was still common. Days of yore where houses and automobiles couldn’t command astronomical prices because the use of credit wasn’t so rampantly abused. A day when we were all Americans and not subdivided into categories with labels that divide. Am I asking too much?
Certainly none of us are perfect. But there use to be a day when kids played outside, used their imaginations and had manners when speaking to adults. That is what I’m looking for. A place where God is not swept under the rug and nativity sets are welcomed along with symbols from other faiths. We were founded a Christian nation and I’d just like to continue living in that tradition. I don’t care what color the residents are or how much money they make… I just want to live somewhere where people know how to respect each other. And a few mountains and lakes wouldn’t hurt either. Mitford. Mayberry. Let me know if you have found a place that might be running about twenty years behind…and I’ll get there as fast as I can.
Decidedly Different 