Where I Live....

They say “nothing happens in small towns.”  But I would question that statement. I’ve lived in the same little town for forty-six years.  Through the years many have asked me “Why?”  I came with a purpose and lived out that purpose as best I knew how, but that’s another story.  I can tell you, from my own experience,  that a lot can and does happen in little towns.  Every little town is a microcosm of every big town, and every big town is a microcosm of every urban center. 

Edgar Frank wrote a poem that I have often used to answer those who wonder how I’ve managed to live in my small town.  He suggests, and I believe rightly so, that no one of us can live in some constrained geographical space if we are really alive.

“How can you live in Goshen?”

Said a friend from afar,

“This wretched country town

Where folks talk little things all year

And plant their cabbage by the moon!”

Said I:

“I do not live in Goshen,—

I eat here, sleep here, work here;

I live in Greece,

Where Plato taught,

And Phidias carved,

And Epictetus wrote.

I dwell in Italy, 

Where Michael Angelo wrought

In color, form and mass; 

Where Cicero penned immortal lines,

And Dante sang undying songs.

Think not my life is small

Because you see a puny place;

I have my books; I have my dreams; 

A thousand souls have left for me

Enchantment that transcends

Both time and place.

And so I live in Paradise,

Not here.”