I took the back roads home today, down a tiny ribbon of a highway covered so thickly with oak trees and dripping Spanish moss that it kept cutting out the reception on my satellite radio. Some of the drive was serene, past historical plantations and some of the oldest gardens in the country. Some of the drive was much scarier, through rough neighborhoods, populated by some of the unsavory types this state is famous for. I once completely ruled out a house, back when we were still shopping for one, because the next door neighbor had a certain yellow flag hanging off of his garage. Today, I went through a whole hamlet full of them, and I felt a general air of hostility permeating the entire area. When we first were deciding where to live down here, we noticed how affordable houses were on that side of the river, and pondered looking there for a hot minute. I am so glad we got over that notion quickly. How different my experience of the Low Country would have been if I had been down there, especially during the year and a half that the man was overseas. I would have felt much less safe, much less comfortable with my surroundings. Not sure I ever would have found myself the caretaker of a beautiful Park, with the inspiration to hone my writing craft every night. I might have been writing, but it could have been a manifesto. I shudder to imagine.
I am still working on revamping my old recipes to suit my new lifestyle. Today, I tried to reinvent beer-cheese soup, using a roux of garbanzo-fava bean flour, chicken stock, and a gluten-free beer I dug out of the back of the fridge. I used a ton of cheese for it, but I had just bought a two-pound block of cheese down at Costco, so I had plenty to spare. It was unwieldy, trying to run that giant brick over the box grater. Felt like trying to cook with government cheese. Soup was good though. I could do it again, as a side dish. It wasn't very filling.
I spent the evening reconnecting with a friend who has young children, two and five years old. She's going through some of the same health issues I've had, and we commiserated and shared tips over a couple glasses of wine. I think she's on the right track, and I wish I'd had someone when I was her age, helping get me aimed the right way sooner. I have nothing but hope that she might sail through this process, and not hit the setbacks I faced.
Earlier today, I heard someone talking about how quickly political winds have changed regarding marriage equality, how in fifteen years, the current generation of young people now sees it almost as a non-issue. I said out loud that I believe parents like me are responsible for a lot of it. When my girls were the age my friend's boys are now, we used simple terms, and calmly said things like, "sometimes boys fall in love with boys." These statements were usually followed with a shrug, as if to say, this is totally normal and not a big deal. This is how you affect a generational change. I wonder how many other things we can change if we tackle them this way. The mind boggles at the possibilities for advancement.
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