I've been reading an interesting book with Ivy called
Someplace Else. It's about an old woman who has lived all of her life in one place, but she's always wondered what it would be like to live someplace else, so she loads up her old pickup truck and goes out to find the right place. She tries living with her single banker son in the big city, where she loves the galleries, restaurants and theaters. Her next stop is to stay with a daughter on the seashore -- she enjoys the ocean, the beaches and playing with her grandchildren. Another son lives in the mountains, where she learns to ski and sits by the big stone fireplace.
After a few weeks in each place, she gets restless and decides to move on. All of the spots have things to love about them, but always with some trade-offs. The city is too busy, the seashore too settled, the mountains too rugged. The first time we read it, you assume that it will have some shmaltzy ending with old Mrs. Tillby rediscovering the joys of home, but instead, she buys the coolest airstream trailer lives in it while discovering new places and visiting old favourites, including her beloved apple orchard.
One of the fascinating things about travelling is seeing how other people live. On our prairie roadtrip, I often looked at the new rows of houses in places like Swift Current and wondered "why does anyone live here?" It seems like a barren wasteland in the middle of nowhere. Or I made small talk with a teenaged gas-station attendant in a small town like Virden and wondered about the path ahead of him. I've often assumed that everyone in those places is restless to leave at some point.
If anyone drove into Niverville, Manitoba, they'd probably wonder similar things. There's no river, crossroads or landmark that seems to justify its existence, but it's a growing town with busy shops and streets. We went there to visit my Hiebert clan, who I hadn't seen in years. With one day of warning, my Aunt Mary Anne was able to get 27 people to show up for our visit. How is that possible? Most of the clan is from two families (my dad's sisters), and their kids have all grown up and stayed in Niverville to raise their own families.
It's cheap, safe and they've maintained a rich network of friends and family that keeps everyone close to home. They've found decent work or created it themselves, becoming relatively wealthy without having to move to big cities for jobs, multiple university degrees or excitement. Although I might of judged them as too complacent when I was coming out of school, as we were driving away, Tannis and I realized how jealous we were of the lives they've created. It reflects their values as much as our decision to move to the mountains did, and we're seeing that our values are moving in their direction since we started having kids.