Small (Town) Peeves
Let’s face it…
I’m a country girl. My heart and soul live and breathe country. I love a simpler life based on the rhythm of the changing seasons and the opportunity to do exercise that actually has results (think putting up a fence or taking down a tree instead of doing an elliptical or running a rowing machine).
Yet every place you go has its drawbacks. For me, the pros of city’s art and music and culture are tsunamied by the cons of the sheer amount of sensory input from traffic and pedestrians and sound.
I’ve already mentioned the good things of the country: open air, simpler life, season-based cycles.
Now, I must mention some of the drawbacks. I know I’ve been trying to be positive and not so dark. I’m hoping the wry, dry humor far outweighs my sardonic sarcasm.
You don’t need a global positioning system. The “good people” service takes its place.
Everyone knows where you are and what you do. You can’t sneeze without it becoming the next news story. Sometimes, the good townspeople know your business even better than you do… even when they really don’t
You can’t break the mold; it’s made of diamonds.
Once your family or your teachers pronounce something about you, it becomes the God’s honest truth straight from God’s mouth. You can’t change no matter what you do.
When you do change, some will try to prove you haven’t. They will create circumstances and meetings that are designed to manipulate you back into accepting their limited vision and mold (both of which might be quite moldy).
Planning becomes critical.
If you have special health needs or if you want to go to a department store, you’d best be able to plan. Not only do you have to trek for a large block of time in one direction, you do have to be able to work around the impressive schedule of church meetings, school activities, and other good neighbor exercises that prove you love the area.
Not only that, but if you rely on services like internet, satellite, or cable, you learn that those things just won’t be there in certain weather conditions. If you use them just for fun, it’s fine — you can do without and read a book; go sledding or shovel the driveway; play games like Scrabble, Parcheesi, Yahtzee, and Uno; or bake cookies and cook dinner (if electricity is up). When you use them for your job, it’s a different story. You develop excellent time management skills, discover all the internet cafes within a 30-minute radius, and learn to continue to value hard copy.
Willful blindness and deafness live unchallenged.
The right people’s plight is always seen. They get the help they need at the right time. It may not be the way they expect, but there’s always help.
For the wrong type of people, this rule is an outflow of the first two. You can’t be seen and heard and get help unless you exactly fit the mold that the providers of help define.
Two quotes support this rule.
The first is written by John Heywood and based on Jeremiah 5:21:
There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.
The second is from a pop song. Although the song was originally offered to and rejected by Reba McEntire, Martina McBride rocked the lyrics to Independence Day written by Gretchen Peters. The two most pertinent quotes from eLyrics.net are below:
Well word gets around in a small, small town…
Some folks whispered, some folks talked | But everybody looked the other way
Admittedly, looking the other way might be based on purer motives like giving privacy or not knowing how to admit you don’t know how to help. Other times, it might be based on judgment and embarrassment that that lives here.
So why would anyone want to live a place like that? Why go through the heartache and stress?
No matter where you go, no matter how strong the darkness, there will always be little candles —
- people who challenge how things have been and how things have been perceived
- people who help and love no matter what
- people who find God’s grace and 70 times 7 second chances enable them to go and do likewise
I will be like them.
I will become the change I need to see.
I will both curse the darkness and light a candle.
