As I have noted before, I am a California native, but when we moved to Ridgecrest it had been just over 20 years since I'd lived here. That's a long time to be away and I never thought I'd come back. Although I adored California when I was growing up here, when I left, I didn't want to come back. I just wanted to visit. I enjoyed living in the midwest (if Michigan counts as such), and loved living in the Rocky Mountain time zone. When you're a Californian, you think there's nothing else, there's no other possible place to live. It was so exciting to find out that this is a really big country and it's possible to live practically anywhere in it -- you can even live in Wyoming! (Not that I did. But I used to teach there on weekends.) You can live in South Dakota! You can live in Missouri! There are so many choices and people live in all of them.
Coming back to California feels like giving up. No longer am I an adventurous free spirit. I came back.
Now, not only am I back, but California has just completely fallen to pieces while I was away. It's nearly bankrupt, social programs are being threatened, libraries will be closed, state parks will be closed. I feel responsible for this! I feel as though if I had been here, voting regularly, I could have saved California from itself. This is beyond ridiculous. One's vote counts for nearly nothing in this enormous state. I voted in the special election we had here a couple of weeks ago, and almost nothing I voted for passed. My fellow Californians chose, by and large, to vote their irritation with their government. They refused to compromise. Now the Governor is going to punish the citizens by making horrible cuts. This is such a mess!
I wish I had not come back to participate in this, but since I am here, I wonder what I can do to help. What does this state need from me? Could I volunteer to help keep a library open or a state park? Should I shop more (not that we have any stores in Ridgecrest)? I don't want to gripe, I want to help, but I don't know what to do.
When you live in a smaller (less populous) state, you don't feel so powerless.
Hi there, northern Cal native too, but escaped to Idaho in 1991 and haven't looked back. Sorry that you're having such smacks of reality from our Golden State. It really is VERY VERY sad :-(
ReplyDeleteHang in there. For everything there is a purpose and there's a reason that you're there!