THE OLD DUDE RETURNS HOME I’ve returned home to northwest Illinois after 38 days living out of a suitcase. I would have stayed away longer, but an accident curtailed my adventures. While wandering around NYC August 18, I collided with a shin-high metal crate, opening a cut on my right leg which later became infected, causing my right foot to swell. The doctor said stay off that leg, so no more marathon walks around NYC for the old dude. My space cadet mentality sabotaged me yet again. NYC has changed dramatically for the better since I left 11 years ago. It’s an entirely different city now. Many times I ascended subway steps and couldn’t recognize familiar landmarks, because they no longer existed due to new construction. The city seemed much safer, cleaner and beautiful. The big question is: how can I re-adapt to living in this small town with population 3100, surrounded by corn and soybean fields, way out here on the Great American Prairie, after seeing my old sweetheart NYC again. NYC is exciting, stimulating, even thrilling. But nothing is happening in this small town except peace. What’s wrong with peace? Why do I constantly crave excitement? Why can’t I settle down like a dignified elderly gentleman? If you live in Manhattan, when you leave your relatively tiny apartment, you’re walking the streets or riding the subway, which means you’re constantly looking at other people. In small town America, people are in their cars, which means they’re much more isolated or abstracted from other human beings compared to New Yorkers. New Yorkers also are much more diverse in backgrounds, occupations, hopes and dreams. Even shopping is very different, because NYC offers more choices. Small town people must learn to entertain themselves, whereas New Yorkers are entertained every time they go outdoors. NYC movie theaters show films from all over the world, whereas movie theaters in this region show mostly conventional Hollywood flicks. Small towns offer very little entertainment outside of bars, and even cities like Chicago cannot compare with the range of offerings available in NYC. After NYC, this little town seems deserted. One seldom sees people walking the sidewalks. Nothing is going on. Nothing attracts the eye. I must redevelop my inner resources. My only choice is to return to my routine of writing, hiking and reading … with one new addition. An old friend’s son gave me a functioning flat screen tv set with built-in dvd player. I haven’t owned a tv for 17 years because I don’t like tv. But now I’ll join Netflix and watch movies, concerts and all the other entertainment available on dvd. Perhaps this will help ease the shock of returning to this small town, which in some respects is like returning to exile in Siberia. Why don’t I move? A person with middle class income can live anywhere, but the reading public has not exactly clasped my 83 published novels to its collective breast. So here I’ll stay for the time being. I’ve only been home three days. I’ll probably re-adapt to reality in a few weeks, I hope. But right now I’m still longing for that dazzling city of my dreams, that bustling magnificent Big Apple.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 15:16:21 +0000
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