You Can't Turn Back

You can’t turn back

Each time Kathy and I return to Oregon our connection to this place lessens.

We came to work on two projects and to attend a family wedding.

When you spend sixty plus years in a place you have a connection to it and it has a bit of a hold on you.

We ran into an eighty year old woman at the wedding who remembers my twin sister and I standing up for her when she was our bus driver when we were young kids.

Some bully threw a water balloon at her and as she was crying she said Judi and I stood up for her and she never forgot what “The Dancer Twins” did. I don’t remember but what’s important is she does.

Numerous people came up to me reminding me of my past. One young man who is now a police officer looked me in the eye and thanked me for running for public office. When I sort of shook it off he looked more intently and said “I know what you did and how hard it was, thank you.”

It’s good to be reminded, in a world that seeks to twist and taint every word you write into malpractice, that people remember the good.

Culture tires to hyper focus our attention on mishaps and mistakes.

I guess I’m reminded that a whole lot of people still target the good.

When you move to a new place it can feel like your history is lost.

When you return you are reminded it is not.

We are now visitors to Oregon.

This is not our home and that is okay.

Even though some want to see leaving as turning one’s back on a place that is their perception not everyone’s.

I hope the world pendulum is starting to swing back from far left to a place close to the middle.

I pray critical thinking will again be part of the fabric of American culture.

It’s nicer to be back but also comforting to know, we don’t want to turn back.