12\u00a0 73%\u00a0 19%\u00a0 0mph EEN bar30.06 falls windchill 11\u00a0 Winter<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon<\/p>\n
“Paradise is here or nowhere: You must take your joy with you, or you will never find it.” – O.S. Marden<\/a><\/p>\n Salient advice as Kate and I prepare for Hawai’i.\u00a0 “Just another day in paradise,” is often heard when there, from tourists and locals alike.\u00a0 There’s another one, too, “Lucky we live Hawai’i.”\u00a0 Marden echoes Emerson, who said he didn’t need to go to Italy to see beauty, because he found beauty\u00a0wherever he was.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “Wherever you go, there you are,”\u00a0from the world of AA makes the same point.\u00a0 We take our conclusions, biases, and perceptions with us wherever we go.<\/p>\n A trap into which I have fallen in the past and no doubt will fall into again measures home against the temporary pleasure found in any distant destination, from Ely and Duluth to Kauai and Angkor Wat.\u00a0 Home will always come out second best, because by definition it does not have what Ely does, ready access to the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area.\u00a0 It does not have the perfect, year round temperature of Hawai’i, nor does it have the ocean.\u00a0 It does not have the howler monkeys and ancient temples of Angkor.\u00a0 The Napali Coast fires the imagination in a way different from the drive up Round Lake Boulevard.<\/p>\n True.\u00a0 All true.\u00a0 Compare these far away places, however,\u00a0to home from home.\u00a0 Hawai’i does not have my friends.\u00a0 Angkor does not have the Minneapolis Art Institute and my docent work.\u00a0 Ely does not have easy access to theatres, orchestras and the Walker.\u00a0 Kauai, though it is the garden isle, does not have the garden and grounds on which Kate and I have worked for over 14 years.\u00a0 None of these places have our house, adapted to our creative work and the daily life we live.\u00a0 Could these other places accrue amenities like these?\u00a0 Friends, maybe, over years.\u00a0 The peculiar blend of artistic life enjoyed here in the Twin Cities?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 A house like ours?\u00a0 Probably not.<\/p>\n Also true.\u00a0 All true.\u00a0\u00a0Still,\u00a0we also have, for balance, the testimony of Mark and Elizabeth, who cast off their worldly belongings (ok, they stored some of them.) to travel the globe.\u00a0 So far they’ve hit Buenos Aires, Peru, Shanghai and head out next week for Bangkok.\u00a0 Their home is where they are, though they return here episodically to unite with family and friends.<\/p>\n I had a peripatetic 20’s and 30’s after 16 years in Alexandria, Indiana.\u00a0 I lived in\u00a0twelve different cities\u00a0and rural areas until coming to the Twin Cities metro area.\u00a0 Even after arriving in\u00a0Minneapolis and St. Paul I lived in twelve different apartments and\/or houses in both cities and two suburbs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 14 years\u00a0in Andover has come close to setting a record for personal stability.\u00a0\u00a0 The minuses are written in the script of every foreign or domestic destination that has called to me.\u00a0 They are also painted in lost opportunities to experience other cultures and locales.\u00a0<\/p>\n The pluses though are profound.\u00a0 Daily life has a routine that frees the mind for creative work.\u00a0 I know the microclimates and the soil conditions of each inch of our 2.5 acres.\u00a0 Our dogs and our children have lived their lives here, the dogs their whole lives, the children important parts.\u00a0 Kate and I know each other as stewards of this land, this house and these memories.\u00a0 Lucky we live Andover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 12\u00a0 73%\u00a0 19%\u00a0 0mph EEN bar30.06 falls windchill 11\u00a0 Winter \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon “Paradise is here or nowhere: You must take your joy with you, or you will never find it.” – O.S. Marden Salient advice as Kate and I prepare for Hawai’i.\u00a0 “Just another day in paradise,” is often heard … Continue reading Just Another Day in Paradise<\/span>