Sometimes loving a thing – as one loves our small city – requires seeing it through the perspective of other experiences and other towns’ customs and habits.
When someone touts having been in Whitewater for decades – as though that’s all that matters in the world – he does neither himself nor Whitewater the credit that either deserves.
When I hear town squires talk this way, it makes me wonder: have these men never loved someone truly and deeply? True desire extends beyond an arm’s reach, as anyone who has admired his wife or girlfriend from across a room well knows. Seeing her from a distance, as she moves gracefully across that room, is a gift of affection (and insight) all its own.
It’s odd, and a shame, really: all these proud men who don’t understand that perspective sometimes requires more distance than a few feet in any direction.