Utopia

No single place in the real world is perfect.

I long to return to California, and I am now preparing for my return there. The fact that it's "home" produces an eternal magnetism for me. But my longing for California living is fickle. I have already as an adult twice moved away, and I could easily imagine myself doing so again someday (though David would prefer to settle down, and I must consider that). I'd pick living in the San Francisco Bay Area over anywhere else in the world if given only one choice, but I recognize that it's not Utopia.

While living in Texas I've often made comparisons to my home state, but that's not fair. When I moved to Texas I was lost. I knew no one here, felt like a fish out of water, and was regularly faced with a point of view that to me seemed narrow and limiting. But this did not make Texas a bad place, just an unfamiliar one. As I have lived here, as I've become involved in school and work and explored my neighborhood, I've found people and places that I treasure and will miss dearly when I leave. I could simply accept that I used to not like it and have grown to like it, but I feel there's a lesson here.

First the obvious one, which is that old cliche of absence making the heart grow fonder. In my case, California living is never sweeter than when I'm in residence elsewhere.

And second, a reminder I include here for my future reference, for when I find myself in that part of the world I never dreamed of (Beaumont, anyone?). Remember Michelle, there are delights to be found even in places you least expect them; it's your job to find them.

Finally, I post here a very interesting article in today's New York Times about an experimental farm community set up for Hurricane Katrina evacuees on former sugar cane fields in rural Louisiana. The wealthy guy who bought the land did so with a somewhat Utopian vision. Naturally reality has not been so idyllic, but I was excited to hear someone making an attempt. Perfection is not possible, but when we strive for it, we can reach higher than when we impose limits.

Journeying

Tricycle's Daily Dharma today is called "The Journey and the Destination." I think it is a very nice reminder about what we pay attention to in life.

When we are driving, we tend to think of arriving, and we sacrifice the journey for the sake of the arrival. But life is to be found in the present moment, not in the future. In fact, we may suffer more after we arrive at our destination. If we have to talk of a destination, what about our final destination, the graveyard? We do not want to go in the direction of death; we want to go in the direction of life. But where is life? Life can be found only in the present moment. Therefore, each mile we drive, each step we take, has to bring us into the present moment. This is the practice of mindfulness. When we see a red light or a stop sign, we can smile at it and thank it, because it is a bodhisattva helping us return to the present moment. The red light is a bell of mindfulness. We may have thought of it as an enemy, preventing us from achieving our goal. But now we know the red light is our friend, helping us resist rushing and calling us to return to the present moment where we can meet with life, joy, and peace. --Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment, Wonderful Moment

Tolerance

I found a very cool website and wanted a place to keep track of it. So here I put a link to religioustolerance.org.

Trash

One man's trash is another man's treasure, right? A brief NextBlog fling brought me to another kindred spirit. This blogger has set up a page where he posts the best (worst?) examples of junk email. He even invites people to forward particularly egregious examples for possible inclusion. This appeals to me, you see, because I am amused by the contents of my spam folder. Take a look at the above blog and you'll see why it can be fun to (occasionally) peruse your junk mail.

Waxing

Sometimes I just want a place to post lovely readings I am reminded of or find. You, my kind readers, may be the beneficiaries of my literary proclivities. Either that or you are my captive victims. :) The following is from William Wordsworth's beautiful autobiographical poem The Prelude. It is the source of one of my favorite quotes. Can you figure out what it is?

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows
Like harmony in music; there is a dark
Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles
Discordant elements, makes them cling together
In one society. How strange, that all
The terrors, pains, and early miseries,
Regrets, vexations, lassitudes interfused
Within my mind, should e'er have borne a part,
And that a needful part, in making up
The calm existence that is mine when I
Am worthy of myself! Praise to the end!
Thanks to the means which Nature deigned to employ;
Whether her fearless visitings, or those
That came with soft alarm, like hurtless light
Opening the peaceful clouds; or she would use
Severer interventions, ministry
More palpable, as best might suit her aim.