HUMAN NATURE

If I’m lucky, I get back to West Michigan 3 or 4 times a year. When I do, I always have more to do than I have time. I renewed my car license tags this morning and took breakfast at the best place I know, anywhere. Morning Star is on Washington St. in Grand Haven, just a block off of U.S. 31. I sat at the counter, had blue corn cakes with green chili and an egg on top. I watched the cook and her helpers. They really work; the plates of food just keep coming through the window and the servers have to run to keep up. 

When the day comes and I have to stay in one place, Grand Haven would be as good a place as any. When I think of home it always turns to Carl Sagan’s quote about home; “Look there, that’s home, that mote of dust suspended in a sun beam.” I live on Earth. Most people here want to hear something more concrete, like coordinates or a zip code. Beneath a civilized veneer we are tribal and that means; Who’s your mama? I dodge the issue enough it makes my family and friends uncomfortable. “Why can’t you just say something they can digest and move on?” I would like that but it would gnaw at me for hours. But I do love Michigan. The big lake is flat and blue this morning. Sail boats far enough out, all you can see are their sails. Mid July and people lounging at sidewalk bistros would rather sit in the sun than the shade. 

I fit in here, speak the language, understand the righteous bias. White privilege is so internalized, so systemic, no one has heard of it or else they think it is a sinful conspiracy. But in the next town where Fulton St. crosses Division, if you look south you’ll see poverty with its addicts and derelicts. But in Grand Haven, poverty is a myth and they might as well be comic characters in fairytale. 

I know a liberal minister here turned university professor who told me, “You didn’t screw it up and you can’t fix it. If you want to play Don Quixote and joust with wind mills, you can. But that’s all you’ll be doing. If you live within your means and do no harm, that’s all God can expect. Live as best you can, do what you can, it will be gone soon enough.” Sounds a lot like King Solomon don’t you think? I didn’t like his advice at first but over time I think he is more right than wrong. We are evolved to serve our own best interest on the one hand and likewise, evolved to take care of each other. Which way to lean, how hard to push, and how long it takes to realize you’ve gone too far: it’s a relentless tug of war called Human Nature. So I’ll keep coming back to Grand Haven and the good life here. But I know how the world turns down on Division St. and the difference between their fate an mine is timing and good fortune. My biggest decision for the rest of the day is whether to help split fire wood or help spread wood chips in the blue berries. I get to work as hard as I want, quit when I feel like it. Tomorrow or the day after, I’ll drive up to Glen Lake, Sleeping Bear Lake Shore. Photographs and a hike will take all day. Then meet with my investments manager; who would have ever thought coins in a coffee can would grow up? Hang out with friends at a concert in Grand Rapids on Friday night and my week here will be nearly spent. I have a high school class reunion the next week - miles and miles . . . but I know how that works.