Crowds, People, and Strangers?

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve often been told and have heard this self-perceived proud gloating about remote, rural country-living:  “Living out in the country away from huge crowds, rude impolite strangers, horrible traffic and congestion, and high crime-rates are the best reasons not to live in the big city.“ Where I am currently living, in the central Hill Country of Texas, I am often offered this sort of bragging. I find it a very odd mindset and perception by “sweet ole” country folks. Almost naïve, if I must admit.

I was born and raised in one of Texas’ largest cities, Dallas. From only 682,000 people inside the official city-limits, Dallas has grown now to 1,300,092 in 2016. That number is strictly within the narrow city-limits. Today, the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex has a 2016 population nearing 7.2-million! Though not as large as say New York or Los Angeles, DFW is not moderately sized by any means. And with that size and diversity comes a plethora of wonderful benefits, like the Fine Arts, endless huge libraries scattered about, auditoriums, theaters, museums and sports stadiums, a very wide job-market, and in particular the means and resources to be environmentally responsibly Green! Huge perk there! Nonetheless, yes… Dallas-Ft. Worth does have its drawbacks like crime and traffic just like any major city in the U.S. and around the world.

Dallas Skyline before Sunset 612 3

But are those drawbacks due to a location or region, or are they results of crowds, people, individuals and strangers in a strange or familiar home or place? Is it related to a number of people squeezed together or is it a fluctuating degree of people-skills, education, collaboration? Here’s the million-dollar question:  What is really implied by gloating about one’s geographical home/house or culture? I’d like to honestly understand.

As some/many of you know, I am currently displaced from my big city home and culture of Dallas, Texas. Due to family (mis)givings I am in that heaven-like(?) rural, remote small country town getting my elderly widowed Mom’s house emptied and her moved out of this large 10-acre ranchita home. We are a minimum of 66-miles from the nearest city. With that privacy and peace-of-mind, as many “round these parts” would boast, there are also some significant DISadvantages to this lifestyle. First and foremost, fast emergency attention from EMT’s! When Mom’s late husband had a critical heart-attack in 2006, it took the ambulance and EMT’s nearly 30-minutes to arrive out here, partly because there were only two ambulance services here serving about a 25-mile or more radius.

Second, and as we discovered last year needing to dispose of an old cathode ray tube (CRT) 24″ television, not only did the local garbage pickup company not accept these TV’s for the landfill, but all local businesses or recycling centers would not either. It took near two weeks to finally find an off-the-beaten-path junkyard business to reluctantly take ours, for free!

One year later we are back here again. Now it is her 44″ CRT television that weighs about as much as a small elephant! I would know, because I am the one who strained my legs, arms, and back just to get it out of the entertainment cabinet and onto the tow-dolly in front of the cabinet — only to move it 50-yards to the back patio out the wide sliding-glass doors; the only exit it would fit through. Getting out of bed the next morning I’m sure I looked like a drunk turtle on its back, legs barely swaying in the air looking for something to grab! Hell, if I had needed fast emergency care for paralysis, I’d be waiting for at least 30-minutes, which in that painfully forsaken time I could have hot tea and toast… country-style!

log cabin livingWithout delay I get on the internet and search for some business, some Green recycling establishments nearby to come and pickup this dead goliath-of-entertainment and dispose of it properly. Snap! I find no less than three! I continue reading all the various junk-items that they happily come and pickup — just type in your zip code it says and they’ll arrange for pickup. Wow, I am totally stoked about this solution! Three minutes later, “I’m sorry sir. We do not service that area. It is simply too far, too remote.“ Talk about total deflation. We ask if they have any recommendations. “Go onto the internet and Google TV removal/disposal.” As I already discovered, all the other recycling establishments were in the same large city… yes, 66-miles away.

It begs the question: What is it again you remote country folks love about being so secluded out here away from the crowds, people, traffic, strangers and individuals — and their oft needed help and businesses — that makes this sort of living heavenish!? Where do all of you take or place your trash that landfills won’t accept? What exactly is being burned — once the burn-ban is lifted locally — around town and its outskirts? Because I always see white, blue-ish, or black smoke billowing up into our atmosphere? Oh! Another question:  When the poor or homeless or lower-middle class here cannot afford (by law) automobile* liability insurance, or driver’s license fees, or even gasoline to put IN the automobile,* is there any (very affordable) public transportation available? Which by the way, greatly cuts down on carbon emissions if utilized by more and more caring citizens! And one nationally growing medical healthcare concern is rising dementia and Alzheimer’s disease among our retired and aging. Medical research has shown that if a brain remains actively stimulated and challenged, especially during the last half of life, dementia and Alzheimer’s are noticeably reduced! Ahh, large cities and the hustle-n-bustle of many diverse people certainly offer healthy brain-game exercises! So again…

What is so grand about living far away from crowds, people, and (temporary?) strangers of whom you might one day require their kind assistance or ideal business? Tell me again?

Should we rethink this mentality? Should we better define what “community” means… fairly and accurately on several scales?

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*Sidenote — when on the streets of this small country town, it becomes glaringly obvious that 75% – 80% of vehicles on the roads here are big trucks or SUV’s.

Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often — Learn Always

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34 thoughts on “Crowds, People, and Strangers?”

  1. I am TRULY laughing out loud with tears in my eyes at the image of you trying to get out of bed after man-handling that archaic TV! And you are right on track with your description of the woes of country life! I love it! You are sooooooooo ready to hit the city, it’s oozing from your pores! You long for a night of rhythmic dancing and friends…I can tell!

    Of course, your blogs always come at the exact moment I am experiencing something you’re writing about. This afternoon we are going to look at acreage in the middle of the Davy Crockett National Forest. All those things you wrote about have been swirling in my head now for a while! I am glad you shared them to lighten my day!

    As to the answer to your question…
    I believe the grandness of living anywhere is in the “eye of the resident.” It’s like you convincing me to wear your favorite shoes. Not your brand…your actual shoes. That is how uncomfortable a country person would be in the city AND an urbanite would be in the country. I think there are VERY few humans who truly enjoy both. I, however, might just be one of them.

    You are so right about relying on others for help, too! But that happens everywhere. Think of people who have been dragged off urban transit tracks by strangers! Of course emergency assistance is quick in the city, but in the country, you, your spouse and your closest neighbor better know first aid and CPR.

    I love the wide open spaces and forests in the Texas countryside. I love that connection to nature. However, I can bear the urban sprawl for a new Free People shirt and a good pair of birks, too! (Not getting those at the local “general store”…hahaha!) Love to you Professor and good luck with your disposals! Don’t dispose of Mom! She’s a treasure!

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    • Did you enjoy that mental image of an upside down drunk turtle? I can hear you laughing way over here woman! At MY EXPENSE no less! 😛

      I embrace everything you stated MomDistracted (I know who you REALLY ARE and how you get “distracted”! 😈 ) and I too can indeed appreciate BOTH lifestyles/cultures. But yes, you nailed me, my heart and rhythm are oozing out of my pores to return soon to some mega-large city! Absolutely! I am Marco Polo reincarnated, an explorer, adventurer, a Renaissance man at heart, amongst many types of people, wanting to learn NEW ways of living a full life! Yes, infrequently that does include the exhausting, draining, mentally/emotionally-unstable people you find more in urban areas than rural, but as you know well MD(T)… I thrive in that atmosphere, e.g. Charter Hospital, Jackson, MS. 🙂 ❤

      Don't get me wrong, a 2-3 week respite way out in Nature is most certainly needed from time to time! You are correct about that and being drowned and consumed in/by Nature, like I often get here! Hahahaha!

      I'll tell Mom you said that. She adores you too. ❤

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  2. Oh! I forgot to say that I’ve delved into the study of raising chickens (for eggs) and bees…sounding country enough for you? Some days I scare even myself!

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    • BWAHAHAHAHA!!! OMG! YOU… as a chicken-or-the-egg farmer!? I am rolling on the floor now! 😛

      Bees too, huh? Seriously, that is outstanding MD(T)! Now of course you can do that in the city as well, like up on apartment building’s roofs. Over in Europe, the urbanites often share co-op lands/farms for that sort of community growing and maintaining, as well as actively sharing and helping at the fresh local markets! 🙂

      Scare yourself!? What? HAH, no way! SHUT THA FRONT DOOR WOMAN!!! 😛

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  4. Hello Professor. I understand the need for public transportation as a disabled person who doesn’t drive. I am lucky, My husband takes me anywhere I wish to go. However if I did not have him I would be stuck. I live in a middle ground of which you speak. I am no longer in a true city with all the wonderful benefits you mention, however I did not move “out into the country” either. Instead I got half of each. We have pockets with malls, close shopping, and a supply of places to eat. Sadly fast food and chain joints are vastly the norm. So rather than move back where I can have the things I need and those I love, I am instead moving into the country far from those things. Why I hear you ask. It is simply economics. The country area I am moving to is much less expensive place to live. However there is no local places to eat, shopping is a distant drive away, and no social services. However this is a well thought out plan that we will implement in a couple years. Simply for security of being able to live.

    As for why there is more problems with more people in a smaller area. I once heard of a study done with mice. They found that mice live comfortable together as a community when there was a certain level population. They then added more mice. It got to a point where the mice fought and killed and ate each other when the population grew past a certain level. They even stopped taking care of themselves and their environment as they had been doing. Even though the mice all had their needs met, they felt too close to each other, they craved more space it seemed. I think people are like that in a way. The closer you pack them, a small portion get callous and act out in bad ways. Or maybe they always were like that and it just shows more when they are more exposed by being around people more of the time. I think people bring baggage with them they are not even aware of, instinctual habits we needed in the distant past to survive. Limiting population so to maintain food supplies type thing. So when we get into large communal living even though we know everything is fine something begins to act on some people, causing them to do things against the interest of the group, the common good. Maybe like the mice, some portion of our species can’t tolerate the lack of a set amount of space without becoming destructive.

    Well I really have to add I don’t know what motivates people to feel and act as they do. I am still trying to figure out why I feel and act the way I do, and sometimes it makes little to no sense to me at all. 😉 Hugs

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    • Hi Scottie!

      I get thrilled that someone puts so much considered thought and time into their comment(s) on my posts! Much appreciated! Thank you Sir. ❤

      Your move out to "middle ground" is completely understandable. You and your husband are simply being wise and frugal when called for. Well done, and I'm glad you two were able to find a place that suits (as well as is possible) all your various needs. 🙂

      I don’t proactively knock anyone’s choice to live out in ‘the country’ or even more reclusive, solo in the wilderness. Everyone’s preferences, personality, and particular needs are different. What does obviously cause me to pinch my brow in bafflement is the overly proud boasting or gloating by people of why their chosen home and living style is better than all others. I love to travel! I love to experience completely NEW things and ways to FULLY experience life via ALL our human senses. Thus, I have been very fortunate to have experienced A LOT of life, most of this world — 4 of the 6 habitable continents — and many many cultures, and of course just about 25 of the U.S. 50 states; practically 90% of Texas especially. However, out of all those incredible, memorable, pleasurable places… I can list (fairly I hope!) pros and cons of every single one, so in my many decades of life I’ve concluded that grading a people and place is more often relative to the traveller, the one grading, and doesn’t necessarily reflect infallible facts! LOL 😛

      Yet, for some bizarre reason(s) I encounter those ruralites who very proudly (arrogantly?) proclaim THEIR home and lifestyle is ‘bar none the standard to strive for’, to dream about, and envy. Hahahaha. When I delve into their reasons asking where all around the nation and world they have been, sometimes/often they have lived in only 1-3 places and have NOT travelled far and wide at all! 😮 I guess you don’t know what you don’t know, huh? Maybe? 😉

      I love your mice analogy/study. And did you know that genetically Homo sapiens share 92% of our genes with mice! There are certainly correlations there Scottie! LOL 😛 To contrast your fine point, my Mom is 1 of 12 children, 1 of 4 sisters, and she has told me many times how much she SHARED (mostly begrudgingly) clothes, food, chores, even their bed… all four of them growing up in their small country homes, YET made it work! Was that because of the human brain’s capacity to collaborate for the better of the whole (survival?), or was it that they’d get a “whoopin” by the (tree-)switch if they didn’t get along!? Hahahaha! Your point is still valid Scottie. 🙂

      And warm hugs to you too Sir!

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      • Hello Professor you are too kind sir. As you described your travels I was both envious and delighted. It causes me to think on how and why people travel. I was silly in my youth. I had an opportunity to travel freely and cheaply around Europe and did not see the value in doing so. I had not developed the maturity to be curious, and had not strengthened my reasoning ability to do more than compare their was with ours. In those days of being a young US Army man I always accorded my own country the dubious honor of being the best at everything , facts about that be damned. I see now a strange disconnect to my thinking. I loved the people and accorded them respect my companions did not. However I couldn’t extend that to their ways, their goverments structures, their social programs, their priorities. In both respects I robbed myself of both a great opportunity to learn and to grow as a person.

        I think people who live in the country and act the way you describe are some what like I once was. They just take it to a much greater degree. Ron and I use to get really frustrated when we had to deal with those I grew up with . They had never left their home towns, yet seem to think not only were their opinion the most correct, but that they were more versed in subjects out side their town than anyone who traveled away from it. A collection of the most backward, stubborn , ignorant people I can not even accurately portray. An example was these people are convinced without any evidence that hospice kills the people who go there and to agree to having a loved one go to hospice care makes you a murderer. I was in charge of the end f life care for both of the adults that raised me, as they did not want the mind dead self centered spawn of theirs to have end of life control of them. They both wanted to go to hospice at the end as there was no medical treatment to help them. The spawn pulled every dirty trick they could pull to get the patients out of hospice they then actively accused Ron and I of murder. They convinced quite a few of their cronies and relatives of that.

        I wish people would realize that patriotism is not unthinkingly claiming your country is the best at everything and needs no improvements. Patriotism is seeing the ways your country can be improved and working to make it better. It is harder to stay and fix a problem than to simply walk away and ignore it.

        While there are areas where the US was once the leader we are slowly losing that position due to the religious denying of science. There are things we can learn from other countries , both good and bad. We can use the example of Russia to see what a country run by oligarchs does to destroy the economy and the lives of the working people. We can see the advantages in other countries in a progressive tax system that provides for social safety programs and boosts productivity. There are so many things we could learn with having to fall down the same clifts if we would just open ourselves to seeing what others do. If you and I are running at full speed and you run into a wall ahead of me, I don’t need to run into the same wall. By looking around and forward I can see what happened to you and act accordingly.

        As to why humans even packed together act in the way that benefits all of the community, I think you are correct in both reasons. Seems to me that a correct balance of the carrot and the stick can work if done properly. Also the human instinct is to form a close community to provide protection and to divide tasks for the greater good of the species. We have the instinct, we just stink at the implementation of it. 🙂

        Thank you for feeding my mind today.
        It is a hungry beast these days and I try to keep it fed as well as possible.
        I find a mixture of items is best for its growth. 😉 Hugs

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        • The fact that you’ve learned, recognized the narrow-mindedness, and have CHANGED that mindset Scottie is much more than many accomplish, even attempt! The scope of human self-absorption (ego) can be much wider than one ever expected, or denied, especially when your society feeds, nurtures, and bombards you daily/weekly with that message through many mediums. How frequently do you encounter wonderful humbleness and selflessness?

          As Mark Twain appropriately wrote…

          “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

          Your 5th paragraph is poignantly stated. Any guesses or ideas as to WHY humans STILL “suck at implementing” healthy thriving collaborating community in a global Superorganism mentality rather than a bunch of small/tiny groups fighting each other or constantly considering the other inferior? 😉

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          • Yes It is a hard question, and I have spent some energy pondering it. I have come down to two things. These two things are the two sides of the same problem. Greed and Envy. For the average population those are the problems that tear them apart. All other things can be reasoned. I am not talking about the people at the extreme ends of the spectrum, they are few.

            I looked at it as an overview first. What causes people who agree to work and live together to fall apart, to create divisions. It always came down to some people wanting what others may have or that they think those people have, and the actions that causes. Resentment, and aggression, and attempts to take it. Or sadness, despair, and destructiveness. Add the other side of the coin, the need some people have to have more than others, no matter what it is as long as it is a value they can use to elevate their status. They will do things against the common good to get more of the resources or power or whatever serves to elevate their status.

            Those are just a few ways that envy and greed hurt communities. They are emotions and people are emotional beings. Hard to separate or train us out of them. Yes, some toddlers are willing to share, while others are afraid they will lose what they have. I don’t have the answers here.

            At first I thought it was power that caused problems. Then I realised authority is needed in any structure. Authority exists and is given by the group, at least at first as a foundation. Power is something that must be taken. I think authority is given and backed up by group effort. Power is taken, stolen, is illegitimate and has no base support and is detrimental to the community. But then I got to thinking what is power…it seems to be greed. The wanting more of. Why does greed bother the rest of us. Because we do not have a fair share of whatever the item is and feel some of it should be ours. That is a simple way to say envy.

            So my reason people suck at tight-knit communities are the emotions of greed and envy. What do you think? Hugs

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            • What do I think? I think you pretty much nailed it Scottie. Greed, envy, and probably several of those supremely less virtuous human traits that keep us from a global Superorganism mentality are major obstacles/problems. What is so ironic and frustrating is that they are ALL characteristics that can be UNlearned, UNtaught, UNbehaved (if that’s a word 😉 ) if honest self-reflection and humbleness were much more prevalent world-wide, especially in the United States and in particular my home state.

              Thank you very much Scottie for all your great feedback and thoughts! ❤

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  5. “What is so grand about living far away from crowds, people . . . [etc.]”

    Well Professor, I thought about this long and hard, hard and long too, not floppy and short, not a bit of it, and I concluded that for me the answer was that I was far away from crowds, people . . . [etc.]

    Still, as I approach my 94th birthday, and so too my need for a third pair of hips, I’m thinking I need to be closer to services, if not crowds, people, and etceteras. H ❤

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    • Hello Hariod. Getting ready to have my second total hip replacement. Once I got that I figure I can run out to the far country for 15 to 20 years before I need another one. I may have to come into the city every few years to be oiled. Every five years I will need to have my shoes rotated, but I have been told they have a junk yard with a lift they can put me up on for any outer replacement parts. ( giggle giggle ) 🙂 Hugs

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    • Hariod,

      I am SO THRILLED that you’ve done so much lengthy, hardest, hardier and lengthier 😉 unfloppy and distant thinking about all of this… MANY BITS as a matter of fact, and FINALLY (whew!) concluded in that spectacular 94th cranium of yours that you are too far… from something! 😛

      3rd pair of hips!? 😮 Umm, how many do you have? Are you like a pseudo-scutigera coleoptrata sapien who REALLY gets around, or did… etceteras!? 😉 hehe

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  6. Professor, while I was reading your blog (rant? LOL!), the words to an old classic TV show kept running through my head. I am sure you will hear its tune as you read it:

    Green acres is the place to be
    Farm living is the life for me
    Land spreading out,
    so far and wide
    Keep Manhattan,
    just give me that countryside.

    New York
    is where I’d rather stay
    I get allergic smelling hay
    I just adore a penthouse view
    Darling, I love you,
    but give me Park Avenue.

    The chores
    The stores
    Fresh Air
    Times Square

    You are my wife
    Goodbye, City life…

    I once lived in “rural world” – and felt just like Mrs. Douglas. 🙂 I had hoped it would grow on me, but it didn’t. Hell, even when my kids grew up and had a chance to leave, well, let’s just say, they didn’t let the grass grow under their feet…they were “outta there”! And when they left, so did I.

    I heard all the boasting as well and still hear some people around me in the Tampa area speaking lovingly of the “great outdoors” living. I’m like, “Uh…why?” I love being near just about anything I want. Yes, there are some crowded areas and neighborhoods that I most certainly avoid, but even in a “big city” you can find some areas of “heaven” that are not overcrowded.

    Scottie’s discussion of the overcrowded mice certainly applies to some areas of the city, but again, there are locations that can satiate my city appetite and keep me away from those mean mice. 🙂

    I am happy I was able to carve out some time to stop by. I always enjoy your work!

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    • Hahahahaha! Loved that catchy tune. Yes, I’m growing quite tired of being Mr. Douglas! I need a more higher frequency of challenging intelligent stimulations! 😛 I’ve watched all my scientific DVD’s — e.g. Stephen Hawking, E.O. Wilson, Through the Wormholes, The Exodus Decoded, PBS Frontlines, etc. — like 4 or 5 times! Ahhheee! 😮

      Scottie’s mice was pretty good wasn’t it? Not sure if that’s a fair reflection of meaned-micey Homo sapiens or not, huh? LOL

      As always LS, thank you very much for carving out some time for me and sharing your humour and thoughts! Don’t be a stranger! ❤

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  7. I am definitely a city person myself having grown up in one. But there is a certain size of metropolis that even I cannot take. I’ve suffered the same consequences as you when it comes to recycling. When we first moved to this small town they did not take recycling, nor did there seem to be any recycling bins in town. About 5 years ago they started once a month, and now it’s moved up to twice a month. I think there are still only two people on my block who recycle, which is some sad shit. Especially given how much garbage people on our street seem to dump into the forested area across the street.

    I also experienced the TV issue. Could not find anybody to recycle it. There was even some person in the county in charge of these things, but that person didn’t seem to do anything productive when I e-mailed him. He just sort of told me the closest place to take it was way off in another county. I ended up just putting it in the regular trash…which they aren’t supposed to take, but I put a 12 pack of beer on top of the TV as a bribe, and it was gone when I came home. 🙂 I’ve used that beer bribe once again for having them take away a mattress. I’m not proud of it, as I’d prefer to get rid of trash responsibly, but this is just not a priority in rural/small town life.

    I think what’s most valuable to me is having that diversity and so while I don’t need to be in a big city for that, bigger cities simply do have a higher probability of having that diversity. The thing I get most tired of is just seeing white people everywhere. I’m quite used to it…but I live in a county where the minority populations are no more than 4%. I grew up in an area of a city where that was closer 25-30%, and it probably neared 50% by the time I was a teenager. That’s a huge change. It’s tiring knowing how much you stand out as someone who is clearly non-white (even though I am half white). I miss good restaurants, I miss being closer to museums, plays, art, etc.

    I also think that when it comes to crime statistics, rural places are no better. Per capita I do think that many rural areas are worse than cities. You just can’t drive down I-35 in Dallas and put bullet holes in road signs like you can in rural Wyoming. Both are crimes. It is a difference in locations and numbers of police per unit area that make a difference who gets charged. The heroin epidemic in rural counties here in PA and WV would certainly give cities a run for their money in terms of drug crimes. Again the per capita rate I believe is much higher.

    Many professors here live in Pittsburgh and commute an hour to get to work. My time is also precious to me which is why I chose to do the half hour drive and live in a smallish 50,000 or so population town with a reasonable number of amenities in terms of grocery stores and the like. However it’s far from my ideal location, and at this point I’d almost rather have an acreage in the country or live in a city suburb than where I’m at. As I age, my view may change I suppose.

    Good ruminations in this post Professor!

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    • I have to agree with everything you’ve stated Swarn. And thank you for bringing up the crime-rate comparisons between urban vs. rural life. That is more often than not distorted by personal opinions and bias. Funny, the games we play in our own heads, huh? 😉

      I do feel that no matter where you live (for a long extended period), MUCH depends on community… the individual PEOPLE who make up the community and how they feed their soul and those around them, the ‘Wolf Inside‘ if you will. I have found in all my travels and places lived it doesn’t matter the actual geographical location. It is the people, and their number, who make a place. 🙂

      Thank you Swarn for your continued feedback and apologies for the delay in replying Sir. ❤

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      • I am definitely with you there. I can pretty much live anywhere when in good company. Community is a big part of humanity in general, I honestly think that’s why religion is still popular, because it’s the easy path to community. I’ve known so many who hold on to their religion over social reasons. Relationships that they value in the present or nostalgic in the past. And I think a lot of people don’t even understand that they can find community even if they let go of their religion.

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  9. Interesting way you think. I’ve always wanted to live the secluded life. I live in a state that is two hours long north and south. We do not have east and west, and if we are going in that direction we hit another state. Additionally, the population of this state is about 945,000. Small and easy to navigate. Which also comes with economical advantages. Cheap gas. No tax. Cheap food. And endless crabs from the eastern shore. Any piece of country I find out here isn’t even close to how you describe in Texas. You mention it takes up to 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. That scares me. Maybe it is better living near people. Lol. I think it’s important to consider the advantages and disadvantages of living in a rural area. Makes ya think. Thanks for sharing.

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    • Your home sounds wonderful! I am and always will be a people-person. I want to understand anyone, what makes them tick — their likes, dislikes, passions, and fears. And I accept the good with the… umm, less attractive(?), while remembering that human nature is quite influenced internally and externally (nature vs. nurture), similar to your post about how we perceive ourselves. We adapt as best we know how, hopefully for the greater good, but sometimes not so well. I guess it’s the old cliché: a place is what YOU make it.

      Thank you so much for your comment. Please, stop by as often as you like and share yourself. I love feedback from all over the world! 🙂

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  10. Lol
    I must say you have penned this wonderfully, love the part when you’re trying to get out of bed after manhandling the TV.
    However on a serious note, you’ve actually put it in perspective as sometimes we don’t think about the cons of living in a countryside and it’s true the libraries and arts which we leisure from and the delivery services which often spoil us. Ah imagine all that not available.

    Thank you professor.

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    • Thank you so much for your comment SM. You make a great point! I do enjoy very much visiting, even staying for 1-2 weeks out in Nature and the countryside, etc. However, I am most certainly an Orchid Personality-type, or DRD4-7R genome type if you will, i.e. I require regular sensory and mental stimulation and maintenance as such! Hence, my Bohemian Marco Polo (explorer) tendencies. LOL 😛

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