Hannah Coulter -- Jill's take

Hannah Coulter had one great regret in her life, and that was the way she'd talked to her children about her own childhood. She was afraid that, in telling them stories of the hard times she'd endured, she'd given them the idea that hardships were to be avoided and that it was possible to "move on" to some better life. She had wanted her children to have a good education so that they could have a better chance than she'd had. Later, she learned not to complain about the chance she'd had. The chance she'd had was her life. She'd had sadness and troubles in her life, but a lot of happiness too. Hannah was afraid that her children had left home looking for a better place that they would never find.

I do not believe in "the pursuit of happiness." People who are pursuing something better are usually unhappy, because they are always comparing what they have now to what they might someday have or where they live now to where they might someday live.

I know that there is no better place than our our little piece of Albuquerque. Having biked and walked this place extensively, I know it well enough to love it. We may move, and if we do I will bike and walk that place until I love it, and then there will be no better place for me than that place.

But that will take some time because learning to love a place involves learning to love the people in the place. Here we have a "membership." We have people. I love my part of Albuquerque because I know it because I live with it. And I love my people here because I know them because I live close to them and see them often. Even the wondrous Facebook doesn't allow me to live with people that I just don't live with. There is nothing like actual proximity for growing love.

So I preach the membership like Burley Coulter did: love your place, love your people. You should know by now that your place and your people are good. Live in your place. Live with your people. Proximity is a gift from God. Don't waste it looking off into the distance.