I’m sitting in my living room, under my spinning ceiling fan, eating a peach. There’s nothing that makes me feel more like a kid than eating a peach…and, turns out, the prickly skin still bothers me. I remember being a kid and not wanting to eat the peach because it hurt my delicate little lips. How does everyone else eat peaches and not get bothered by the prickles?
Today’s peach represents the way that I’m feeling about the South—today, that is. It differs almost every day, so I need to add that caveat. I’ll try to explain. For years, the concept of the south has captured me. I was intrigued by the stories I read, the descriptions of the houses and the scenery. I thought it would be so sensual, so romantic, so captivating. But as most people know, there are prickles (as I imagine that there would be in any place). Surprisingly, the sauna is one of the least of these prickles.
It is so hard to relate to many people. Most women here have an entirely different concept of what life is about. Their one goal is to land a man. Once they have the man, they want him to pay for everything, to buy her presents, to support a lavish and spoiled lifestyle—the one their fathers have always given them. Don’t get me wrong. For all my outlandish liberal ideas that many people believe I hold, I am all for women OR men deciding to value family over all else. Staying home, raising kids, if it’s possible for one parent, go for it. Why be so selfish as to keep earning money you don’t need? Of course, I feel it could be either parent, but that’s an argument for another time. But that’s not what these girls are after. Their main goal is simply to not have to work, to be taken care of.
Then there’s the complete lack of ability to relate. For instance, it’s tough to come from one of the most-read cities in the country to a state in which many people can’t read, and if they can most certainly don’t make the effort. People look at me as though I’m odd when I talk about books or that I’m taking classes just for the fun of taking a class. And all this pales in comparison to the blank looks I get when talking about organic foods and fair trade.
Yes, I’m making broad stereotypes here. I have found a few people that I can relate to, and their enthusiasm and passion is all the more apparent when it doesn’t blend into everyone else’s. In
There is quite a prickly skin wrapped around living in the south. Still, something about the houses still draws me in, something about the night air makes time move more slowly. And so I put on Better Than Ezra and dream about curtains.
1 comment:
The key to eating a peach is to blanch it and then pull off the skin before you eat it. Sometimes people need to be blanched and peeled before they are open to new ideas and ways of living. The nice thing is the blanching process is only a few seconds and then its not as difficult to peel back the thick skin.
Oh, I can't imagine life without books and Market of Choice.
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