Local colour

Being away from central Wisconsin has allowed me to grow unaccustomed of the way things are done here. On the one hand, that means I have had an opportunity to see how things are done differently elsewhere and by people other than my family. I have and continue to grow away from bad habits. And when the way we do things has proven effective, I can see that, too. Really, there’s almost no negative to growth.

And there is nothing really awful (although, it is quite dramatic and stressful; I wouldn’t be remiss to call it dysfunctional) about being back here in what I used to call “home” and, yet, there’s nothing I really want to return to, either. The local culture just isn’t me, anymore. It’s blue collar. It’s small town/city. It’s everyone-knows-everyone else. It’s a situation and a place which I can respect. People work hard to take care of their families. They make do without complaining because they know that what they have is better than having nothing at all. And there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just someplace I don’t want to return to after having gotten a taste of the world.

And. having had that taste, I want to give it to everyone else, too, so we can all be motivated to do better.