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HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
I Wasn’t Running From Anything When I Moved From the States to France
While I thought of moving to France at 68 as starting a new chapter, my first thought when difficulties arise has always been to run
It’s been more than a decade since I moved from the US to France. Over the years, I’ve thought about my decision, wondered at times about my motivation. I was 68, not exactly young; was I trying to outrun the realities of ageing, proving to myself that by embarking on this adventure I could hold back, or at least slow down the clock?
If that idea was there, it was buried deep in my subconscious. I thought then, as I think now, that I just wanted to try living in France — a dream I’d long nurtured and, at last, the time seemed right.
Yet throughout my life and still right now, my first impulse in the face of adversity, of obstacles, disappointment, of things not working out is to literally escape — to somehow outrun the pain of what’s happening
It’s been nearly two years now since my friend Kit’s husband, Jerry, died. As I tried to help her through those early months of grief, I remember fighting the urge to suggest that she get away for a while.
