My travels this summer have allowed me to explore the nature of "displacement". I have never really felt like I was deeply rooted in a community as an adult. I did feel tied to Vashon Island, and yet, that connection was really conferred on me by my parents and maternal grandparents. Rod chose Portland. I clearly have no roots put down on a farm in Michigan, where I am "the other" but I have grown to love the corn in front of the picture window and the dry bean fields are beginning to change from green to this stunning shade of yellow, the color of mustard hills in Napa. And every morning cardinals, goldfinch, white breasted nuthatch, mourning doves, and a lot of LBB's flock to the feeders. Yesterday I saw a barn owl soaring over the corn tassels hunting for rodents. This is a community of goodwill but it creates no bridge from being "the other" to being "the people". Displacement has been an interesting topic to muse on over the course of the last two months during long hours on the road, listening to K. D. Lang or when sleep wasn't forthcoming. I have more questions than answers but have appreciated the think time.
I have been reading Paul Theroux and he described a journey taken by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. He and the other members of his expedition undertook what he referred to as the "Worst Journey in the World". They were in search of Emperor penguins in Antarctica. He stated, "If you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore. If you are a brave man you will do nothing; if you are fearful you may do much, for none but the cowards have need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say "What is the use?" If you march your Winter's Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg." I know that not all of you understand my journey but I think, in my own way, that I am looking for the "egg".
