“Life in these United States”

Today as I was reflecting on my feelings while pushing a cart in a grocery store- is that what we mostly do these days?- I thought of the expression, "Been there, done that". But I felt, "Been everywhere, done everything." Two years ago I asked, "Is there life after Belize?" Now as we are planning to go back to Belize in perhaps 6 weeks, I am asking, "What kind of life is there?" Some say a missionary can never go back home. At this time I am not sure if home is where I had hoped to move back to or Belize. Back to which place? I guess I still want to move back here permanently next summer. But today she dreamed again of building a small guest house and visiting back in Belize regularly. Maybe life is getting a bit dull for her also after six month here. Nov. 17, 2010

                                                               

                                                        How Does She do it?

When I left her at a grocery store this morning, I headed over to the bank to do some business. As I waited in line, I mused over many past experiences of leaving her at a store and expecting to meet her there again. It is not as simple as it sounds. She is a small woman and it seems the larger the store in the States the smaller she seems to become and more difficult to find her again. Even in the small store of Dangriga where I just left her, another time I looked down all six aisles of the store twice and could not find her. Perhaps in the smaller stores she can disappear entirely without a trace. Once I asked a security guard if he had seen her and he couldn’t recall. So you can imagine it is with some trepidation that I leave her anywhere without arranging precisely where to find her again; knowing that even then, she might change her plans and be lost to me. If it gets any more complicated I may just place a GPS device around her ankle, or better yet around her waist on a stretchable band in case she shrinks again in some store.                                      Dec. 31, 2008

Certainly our life here has many boring and silly moments. Such vacuums may inspire some hilarious creativity. Or at least so it seems to me. Some such spark struck me yesterday, but I was afraid to share it with her except with her permission. Even then when she was interested, I insisted that she come into my embrace for me to share the latest flash. “Dear,” I said, “Beneath all those wrinkles in your face and neck, is a very beautiful woman.” Fortunately she let me off without retribution. It is a corollary of a comment I have made occasionally, a take-off from a Sesame Street song, “I love the skin you are in”. Actually, I have appreciated her in recent months more than most periods of our life together. She is so energetic, persistent in working, so good humored and compatible most of the time and permitting me to express myself in my idiosyncrasies and laziness... or craziness! She is just great for her size!

When our Son Paul was staying at our place for a while, his mother apparently gave him more advice than he appreciated so he objected. Then she told him that he should respect his elders. He retorted,

“I am 55 years old”. He was off a year, but his message was clear; he is not our boy anymore. How could we forget for a moment?

When two persons’ thoughts or practices are not the same, are they different? Hardly so. Only one is different. Like how do you eat corn on the cob, length-wise following the rows, or randomly or going around the cob like animals? I asked my siblings once and they looked at me askance as if that was a stupid question. See, my wife eats it differently. Or when I wash the dishes she piles dishes in the sink until I can barely find the water to wash them. She does it differently, piling them in to soak until only her tiny fingers can find the water among the piled dishes. So in both these examples, we are not different, only she is.

Aware that I have clothes that were made in some foreign countries, I took inventory: 22 shirts from 14 countries: Bangladesh, China, Costa Rico, Egypt, El Salvador, Haiti, Korea, Mexico, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippians, Singapore, Ukraine, USA. Only one from the USA! Certainly we support the economies of many countries! Are we internationalists?

We now have the prospects in our familial genetic pool to have in the future, DNA from 5 continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe. We are still looking for an Australian. We are less optimistic in finding Antartician, out of concern of frigidity.