ON THE MOVE At times, we appear to be a people who are constantly "on the move"' always ready, even eager, it seems, to search elsewhere for the realization of dreams we have allowed to become goals in our life. Often ill-defined and romantic by nature, many such "'green pastures" ideas moved many men and women women around as if they were chess pieces being ineptly played in a serious game dealing with materials bordering upon life and death. At times, we are forced to ask ourselves if we have, perhaps, allowed our dreams to lead us astray.
It is highly unlikely that a peasant might become King of the domain or, that a chronic spend-thrift become the richest man. Simply ,moving from one location to another does not work such miracles which some seem to expect it to do.
Quite often we read of a famous writer or artist who was " a product of the slums" and we find it was only after when he or she had escaped from that imprisonment that their talents started to come to the forefront in their lives. The move may well have caused the change to become append apparent -first to them, perhaps, and, in time, to others but the roots were established long before that change of location.
Far too often, I have seen young men and women leave their family environment seeking that which they have decided is to be their lifelong dream work. The success of failure of such a move depends almost entirely on what potions of that home atmosphere he or she took along with them when they left. Few leave empty-handed, even though what they may have taken long is a negative awareness of what is wrong with things them must not do in their new situation. No one leaves home empty-handed or empty-headed.
Major changes in our lives seem to come to us unbidden and circumstances over which we have little or no control decide them. We, as a family many years ago, moved only five or six times in my first two decades, and looking back at it I find that over half of those "moves" where mild, cosmetic changes from house to apartment or the reverse of that or a larger house , whatever became available. Major changes were decided by economic factors - my Dad's job, for instance, moving from a coastal, urban community to a small rural one in the western, mountainous section of our state perhaps three hundred miles away. I was a six-year old at the time, and as I grew, I always had a feeling I had a special blessing of having grown up in two different worlds. I have always as a positive value in regard to my writing tendencies, never as a handicap or obstacle in any way.
The pattern of my childhood years was decided by conditions of The Great Depression era and the direction of my adulthood was radically changed and refashioned by Pearl Harbor Day and events leading up to that moment in our national history.
In one sense of the term, The Depression era may be seen as my "slum" and I have lived so many unusual facets of what is often called "the Good Life" including blessings I could not have anticipated, planned or enacted.
I'm never really still, I now realize. I am ever on the move.
A.L.M. February 14, 2005 [c578wds]
