Tag: California

Day 867 of 1000
Betty Blonde #33 – 09/01/2008

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A funny thing has happened to both Kelly and I over the last several months.  The kids have applied for graduate schools in California, Arizona, and Washington. In the meantime, Lorena and I are trying to figure out whether we should move back out west and where we should land if we do so.  Several people, almost all of them from the Northeast who go to school and church with us in North Carolina have seen fit to tell us they hate California because it is horrible and, in one case, ugly.  Thinking about it, I can remember no one from the South who did this.

We are a bilingual, binational family.  We have seen first hand how bad it is to hear bad things about places and cultures we love.  Before we were even married, both Lorena’s parents and my parents taught us to find something nice to say about where people are from whether it be their town, their state, or their country.  I lived in El Paso, Texas and worked frequently in Juarez, Mexico.  I had plenty of wonderful experiences in both places and lots of nice things to say about them.  This is behavior I really do not understand.  There is no good that comes from talking about bad things that are nothing more than perceptions, fashion, and uninformed opinions.  I need to redouble my efforts not to stray into that territory.