"Think I'll go out to Alberta. . .but the wind sure can blow strong away out there"

Over a month since we left Ireland. It's like a kind of dream now. I was showing some of my photos of our 10 months in Ireland to my 95 year old mother-in-law here in Alberta; so beautiful, such an experience. And finished. On to the next episode of life, whatever that may be.

Although all of my grandparents uprooted their lives several times, emigrating from the "Old Country" to Canada, moving from place to place as their financial circumstances, job circumstances, prescribed, by today's standards the adventure that we undertook from Arizona to Ireland was an odd one. Not because of job, not because of family (although family had a strong influence on me on the decision to come back), why did we do it? A year later, I honestly can't remember. It was an adventure, just an adventure. We did it because we were able to do it. And now we are back because we were able to come back.

But, in the words of a song,

So what happens now?
Another suitcase in another hall
So what happens now?
Take your picture off another wall
Where am I going to?
You'll get by, you always have before
Where am I going to?
Don't ask anymore
[Lloyd Webber & Rice, "Another Suitcase In Another Hall," from Evita]

But we do ask ourselves. Over and over. And we come back to City Mouse vs Country Mouse, lizard (loves the dry heat) vs mountain goat (loves the Rockies). We alternate between saying "oh, I can deal with the desert" and "I can deal with the mountains and snow and cold" but neither wants to, nor can, stick a cane in the ground and say "This is the place."

The perks of retirement--not being defined by a job--are also its challenge. Where do we live if we are not constrained by employment? Who are we if we are not defined by what we "do." And what do we "do" in retirement? Are we still supposed to contribute in some way to society as it whirls its way to the Second Coming? Well, yes, according to both spiritual life and secular. It just isn't "right" to live a life of lotus eating (not that there are any lotuses in either Arizona OR Utah/Montana anyway.) But what do we have to offer?

I am a good teacher. Certainly I am in strong demand for substitute teaching in Sierra Vista. I like teaching. I believe in giving children, youth, the kind of learning support that I received in my liberal arts elementary, high school, college education. The world needs generalists. Critics but not critics in the negative sense but people who can ask the word "why?" without already having formulated the answer. That's me. I believe new things are learned every day although I also believe that there are underlying principles that form the bedrock of our world. Belief in God. Charity. Faith. Hope. Accountability. Life isn't fair--it's how we grow, progress--but that doesn't mean I have to make it MORE unfair by my actions.

So those are some of the thoughts that roil around my head, here in my hotel room in Waterton Lakes. We have come to Alberta to see my mother-in-law and also to visit a very dear friend of mine in Calgary. With whom I will probably have deep discussions, tucked up on the living room couch in our jammies as we have for over 50 years. Only, 50 years ago our deep discussions were about whether McCartney was really dead, or whether that cool guy in high school was really interested in us.... Now our deep discussions are about, how did we get where we are now and where to next?

Life in the sixties--not like life in the 1960s (which, contrary to popular opinion, I DO remember because I WAS there.)

And I do love the mountains....