little hicktown

a lot of movies seem to have consistent themes: the importance of relationships, the hilarity of physical injury, how life doesn't always work out as you would like but it still works out, how personal success isn't the most important thing in the world, and the concept of home... belonging... anything family related seems to be extremely common, probably because its one of those things to which the majority of people can relate...
being in wyoming, i've watched a lot of movies this past week (because there really isn't much else to do)... the last one (other than "wild hogs" hee hee) was "elizabethtown" -- a man returns to his father's home town for the funeral and realizes how well loved his father was there... there was a slight undertone of bitterness from the locals, how some woman stole him away from his high school sweetheart, how he left town for "california", but overall, elizabethtown still loved him... what it means to leave people behind...
i see myself becoming "one of those" -- this past week, a friend of my sister's said to me, at a home basketball game, "i knew you were too smart to stay in this town"... flattered, but i don't think "being smart" has much to do with it... there's all kinds of callings in this life, location is one of the details... i just don't belong in wright, wyoming... i am not the one who gets an education degree and comes back to teach at my old elementary school, or who marries her high school sweetheart, or becomes a full time waitress, or coal miner, or construction worker, or whatever... i don't know what i am, i just am, and i don't feel "at home" anywhere at the moment... edinburgh is my home now, where i stay, and i do love it... but i do appreciate coming from one of those places where i can return, have a conversation with my high school teachers, and they still remember who i am... where i can go into a store and tell someone i'm "dwight and lois's oldest" and they know what that means, and therefore who i am, and commence to tell me their life story :) i like that. community. it is rare.
saying that, if i ever have a family, i'd like my kids to be able to return to that, when they grow up and leave... even if they are bored out of their skulls as teenagers, i'd like them to know what community is like... somehow...
this week, i've also realized that our cat can play fetch (when she wants to, of course), memories are best when they are shared, and people are pretty barbaric when eating bbq ribs... in a good way, of course :)
Merry Christmas to all, and best wishes to everyone!