Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Neil, signing off
Amherst, NH, around Boston, to Mapleville, RI to visit with Kirsti’s father again, then to her mother in East Greenwich.
So, I’m in Dunkin Donuts, freezing with the insane A/C when it’s beautiful outside, trying to fight fires at school remotely on email. Definitely feels like summer is over, and school is back at the forefront of our lives. Strange mix of anticipation, dread, and resentment that the leisure and exploration is over, but mostly I feel rested and ready to work hard again. Kirsti still wants to see a few more sights/sites, but the kids are in a holding pattern revolving around PBS cartoons, so we will concentrate mainly on visiting with Kirsti’s Mother and Stepfather (they always get the short straw of being our last stop of the summer), and getting back in one piece to NJ. We get our house back on Sunday, then go in for meetings on Monday. Anyway, I’m sure all colleagues and students share this strange spread of emotions in these last few days- definitely a reduction in individual “freedom”, but a return to a caring community with two months of cool stories to catch up on (except now all of our stories are old news!).
We’ve seen too much to single out highlights, but I do have one confession to make, and one resolution to keep to. I actually feel more rooted in, and excited about, this country after this trip. NJ is a fine place to bring up children, and a convenient place to live and work, but it’s hard to be passionate about it (sorry, NJ natives). In contrast, in the small villages of New England, and in the endlessness of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, it is easy to feel connected to the landscape, and to the legacy of the generations that have struggled to endure in those harsher conditions. So when the kids go off to college we can move… but meantime, I feel better knowing that two months of exploration have only opened up more places we have to explore (we missed the whole North West, for goodness sakes!), so to folks back in Europe, enough of the platitude that the USA is all the same. The wild and infinite possibility that drew earlier immigrants here is still alive; you just have to look a bit harder. As for the resolution, it’s been (mostly) good getting by living with one small car, one small motel room, one trunkful of possessions. Maybe when we get back we can get by with less stuff, and cut out some of the more inane activities. Perhaps the coming recession will purge all our lives of excess…
Neil, signing off
Amherst, NH, around Boston, to Mapleville, RI to visit with Kirsti’s father again, then to her mother in East Greenwich.
So, I’m in Dunkin Donuts, freezing with the insane A/C when it’s beautiful outside, trying to fight fires at school remotely on email. Definitely feels like summer is over, and school is back at the forefront of our lives. Strange mix of anticipation, dread, and resentment that the leisure and exploration is over, but mostly I feel rested and ready to work hard again. Kirsti still wants to see a few more sights/sites, but the kids are in a holding pattern revolving around PBS cartoons, so we will concentrate mainly on visiting with Kirsti’s Mother and Stepfather (they always get the short straw of being our last stop of the summer), and getting back in one piece to NJ. We get our house back on Sunday, then go in for meetings on Monday. Anyway, I’m sure all colleagues and students share this strange spread of emotions in these last few days- definitely a reduction in individual “freedom”, but a return to a caring community with two months of cool stories to catch up on (except now all of our stories are old news!).
We’ve seen too much to single out highlights, but I do have one confession to make, and one resolution to keep to. I actually feel more rooted in, and excited about, this country after this trip. NJ is a fine place to bring up children, and a convenient place to live and work, but it’s hard to be passionate about it (sorry, NJ natives). In contrast, in the small villages of New England, and in the endlessness of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, it is easy to feel connected to the landscape, and to the legacy of the generations that have struggled to endure in those harsher conditions. So when the kids go off to college we can move… but meantime, I feel better knowing that two months of exploration have only opened up more places we have to explore (we missed the whole North West, for goodness sakes!), so to folks back in Europe, enough of the platitude that the USA is all the same. The wild and infinite possibility that drew earlier immigrants here is still alive; you just have to look a bit harder. As for the resolution, it’s been (mostly) good getting by living with one small car, one small motel room, one trunkful of possessions. Maybe when we get back we can get by with less stuff, and cut out some of the more inane activities. Perhaps the coming recession will purge all our lives of excess…
Photos from the day...
Ashburnham blueberry muffins! We loved these...and got some to take on the road,even!
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