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03:08:2005 Entry: "Ann : The Red (neck) States"

The Red (neck) States

I talk to people who wonder if I miss the west. They are probably puzzled why I moved from Colorado. Most of these people are from the east or midwest themselves. I talk to people I know in Colorado. I know they are puzzled why I moved to Wisconsin. They seem to be terrified of it, yet they have never been here.

I love to travel in the west, but I do not miss living there. There *is* a cultural divide which most people don't seem to grasp. The experiences they have out west do not present any cultural obstacles for them. When you live and work in, or visit in an insular community of like-minded people, you aren't dealing with the west that I knew and that I see when we visit. When you fly across the great plains, you aren't seeing those "flyover" communities up close and on ground level. You don't stop for gas in Nebraska when you fly. You don't look for hotels on the road trying to tread the fine line between affordable and whorehouse. Your social circle bubble prevents you from seeing Deke and Delbert in their pickup with gunracks at the rest stop on a deserted highway. The ending of Easy Rider isn't isolated to the deep south in the 60s or movie iconography.

The irony is that I am saying this as someone living in an insular community myself (Madison is known as 80 square miles surrounded by reality). Yet I have been outside. And the irony is that those not from here, those who have never been here, those who are scared to come here, would love it here. What are they so scared of?

The weather. I have stretched my brain, and this is the only thing I can think of that scares them off. Western weather nice. Wisconsin weather bad. The truth is, the growing season is longer here than on the Front Range, and certainly much longer than in the mountains. Yes, when it does get cold, the temperature does dip quite low. And of course the humidity is bad on hot summer days. But it is hard to see how a little harsher weather could give people such bad impressions of the place, especially when, politically speaking, they would find the climate quite agreeable.

I don't think this makes me "tougher" or "sturdier" on a physical level, because cold does affect me as does the heat. I think I'm open minded enough to see the good, the bad and the ugly in both regions. But (to paraphrase Magazine) my mind isn't so open that any glorified, romanticized new age western mystique could crawl right in.

By Ann @ 10:52 AM CST:03:08:05 ..::Link::..

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