Approaching Seattle

     When I was deciding whether to move to Oysterville back in 1978, I weighed the pros and cons of life in the country versus life in proximity to San Francisco where I had been for more than forty years.  I knew I would miss my friends and I was pretty sure I would miss the easy access to museums and galleries, to plays and concerts – indeed, to all the cultural amenities afforded by the big city.  The trade-off would be proximity to my parents as they aged and a chance for fewer distractions so I could pursue my writing.
     Though all of that was somewhat true, the reality has been far more complex.  Thankfully, many of  my pre-move friendships have continued and have even deepened over the years.  What I didn’t anticipate was that I would have opportunities to expand my circle of friends and acquaintances a hundred-fold or more.
     I  was unprepared for the reality of the interconnectedness in a rural area.  The father of a child in my class was my plumber and his brother-in-law was the sheriff; the son of my teaching colleague was my pharmacist and his wife would student-teach down the hall.  Now, all these years later, there isn’t a place I go on the peninsula (or Astoria or often even Portland or Seattle) that I don’t run across someone I know, a fact which amazes my friends from the big city when they visit. 
     As far as the ‘cultural amenities’ I worried about are concerned – most are readily available.  And, one of the great pleasures of living in a small community has been the opportunity to be on the providing end of some of them.  It’s especially nice to look back and know that I was involved in some of the important ‘beginnings’ on the peninsula – the Peninsula Players, the Water Music Festival, the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum.     So… that piece of the anticipated picture – the ‘fewer distractions’ piece has never surfaced.  I do miss the city – but it’s the bustle and energy and proximity of things I miss.   It does still gall me to have to count on an extra hour to go out to dinner in Ilwaco – a half hour each way.  It always seems that I can accomplish so much more in a short time when I’m in Seattle or Portland.    But, in the long run, would I have?  Well, I knew there would be trade-offs – they just aren’t the ones I expected.