I think it's fairly accurate that I am without borders. Here I sit in Bowling Green, Kentucky...the first capital of the confederacy. A complex and compartmentalized southern town that has seen its socioeconomic conditions and population change so drastically over the past 10 years that most are still trying to catch up. Bowling Green is a town of fascinating demographics, at once conservative, homogenous and insulated, and also incredibly diverse (Bowling Green is home to one of the largest Bosnian expat populations in the world.) An economy that is simultaneously entwined with the legacy of Western KY University and family businesses, healthily booming with old and new manufacturing facilities, and one of the country's highest unemployment rates.
I've lived in the Bluegrass State for two years now, and it has become my home and my happiness. Sounds cliche to say it but it does feel like much longer -
this is a place where you either adapt and are absorbed, or you turn around,
leave the sweet tea behind and convince yourself that you would always be a Yankee in these parts. I beg to differ.
I have learned to put it up instead of put it
away, to accept that I will smell like fried chicken each time I stop for
watery coffee at the Minit Mart (although a couple from San Francisco opened a
coffee shop on the Square, where I can aquire the type of caffeine
concentration my inner East-Coaster is accustomed to...) and I have learned to
love the simplicity that is watching my garden grow. I've learned to appreciate
dark nights in the country, just sitting still, sipping American beers and
listening to country music floating out of the open door of a pick up
truck...and yet I know the lore about driving through some of these country towns at night with
out-of-state plates or a foreign face.
I have learned to stand up for myself but know when to "quit it"...in situations that have perplexed my inner sense of morality and culture just as much as when I stood at the Israeli-Syrian border or the first time I was hustled by a customs agent in Togo. When someone not only offends my opinion, but when someone offends my complete and total understanding of the universe...says something that comes from a completely separate paradigm of consciousness that has formed in stone over years on the farm, based on a history that I will never be a part of nor understand its complexity. I have learned to listen to this history, since I also have my own. I have learned to understand that my vote for Obama means nothing here, and while I will surely pontificate about my admiration for this president, I will not sport an Obama-Biden 2012 bumper sticker on my car if I want to be successful in my career. Right or wrong? It is gloriously both...
I think I am a woman without borders because I have
maintained a deep sense of curiosity and cultural fascination (always
centered around words apparently...) no matter where my feet are planted. I've
experienced some fascinating places. From (in no particular order) the Main
Line to East Germany to South Africa to Montreal to New York City to Togo and now, to the hospitality of Southcentral Kentucky...so many similiarities amd so many
differences, my life is a giant spiderweb of diagonal lines and arcs, bridging
connections from where I was and where I am.
All of SunPower Afrique's solar systems that have been
installed over the past few years are up and running, though I worry constantly
about sustainability and buy-in. It's not perfect. My not being on the ground
in 2 years and, to be totally honest, focusing more on personal decisions
during that time than on fundraising, has taken its toll. A person can in fact
make a life choice that fulfills one dream and stagnates another, without it
being the "wrong" choice. Dreams never die, they ebb and flow and
evolve and always come back around. For now I am enjoying what I have, my loving and caring partner in life, and what is to come for us.
