Aug 7 - Trip to MN - Rough landing

The plane ride home was easy. I flew from Paris to Detroit, then Detroit to Minneapolis. The Detroit - Minneapolis flight was so smooth and beautiful, it felt like flying in heaven. We took off around 7pm and the evening sunset light was just coming along. We glided over Lake Erie and the land became greener and greener. I looked at the scattered farms and the winding rivers and the forests with the golden lights of evening falling across them. The colors were so intense. The sky was clear, but near the ground there was a faint mist that made everything soft. It looked like home, but so mysterious watching it from far up in the sky.

I thought it would be easy to come back, since I was looking forward to it so much. But to my surprise, upon arrival I found myself grumpy and annoyed. There were tons of little things that don't mesh with my ideas of what makes good living. The image of crass consumeristic uptight prudish America came galloping into my field of vision and made it hard for a day or two to see anything else.

For example:

• We ate on an outdoor patio that had an air-conditioner running OUTDOORS! (category: crass wasteful consumerism)
• There was a big scandal because (gasp, horror!) a politician swore on tv for all to hear (category: puritan prudishness)
• There were big, HUGE (5-ft tall) tv screens at nearly every gate at Detroit airport with obligatory sound blasting out of speakers and the usual blood-red shock headlines saying "Opertion: Terror" and "New Health Threat" (category: uptight paranoia)
• Also at Detroit airport, there was a monorail to transport people along the length of a hallway that took no more than 15 minutes max to walk from end-to-end. With the rolling walkways it couldn't have taken more than 7-8 minutes and there were carts to assist people with trouble walking. So why the monorail? Are people here THAT unable to walk? (category: laziness due to too much crass consumerism)
• Every menu now notes puts a warning that certain dishes "contain raw meat which may cause illness" (category: uptight paranoia AND a blazing need to label everything for "your safety")

For the average person reading this blog, these things probably don't seem so bad. But they annoyed me and made me grumpy.

Luckily adjustment does kick in, and now I'm starting to see the good stuff around me too. Mom and I walked to Afton yesterday, and Selma's was looking lucious, and had added an outdoor patio bar and barbeque to the ice cream shop that had such a wonderful air of summer that I am sure to bring Marco there when he arrives. Then Mom and I walked into "Steamboat Park" (which is really just an untouched natural space along the river). We passed through the trees and low wetlands and came out to the sparkling blue St . Croix River looking beautiful as can be in the sun....and discovered that there is now a lovely natural sand beach all along the river there. It must have come into existence when the floods changed the topography of the river a few years back. Hardlly anyone knows about it. It's a long lacy fringe of golden white sand, so lovely between cool blue water and emerald-green trees.