One country, many parts

Growing up in Michigan, I felt we must be in the center of the world. Later, when I couldn't find a job in journalism after college, I realized that the center of my world was rather hostile to an anti-war, civil rights activist like me who also wanted to be a crusading journalist. So I migrated out to the edge of the continent, San Francisco. Here, there were many people like me, as far as politics were concerned. But there was still the matter of living life and finding one's way in a new world. Thirty-five years later, I have to conclude that you can take the boy out of Michigan but you can't really take the Michigan out of the boy. I believe my friends and partners would agree that, while I've tried, I'm still a midwesterner at heart, and this is a very hard place for me to thrive. Here, relationships are temporary in nature. You are supposed to understand that nothing is forever. Nothing you do really matters, because it all can be swept away in an instant, by nature or by a twist of fate.