The visit home

The temperature gauge inside the car read 15 degrees F as we left for work yesterday. Today was warmer, a hefty 25 degrees F. Later this afternoon, everyone at my office was told not to come in to work tomorrow if snow fell tonight…..wow, quite a departure from 90 degree weather and intense humidity and rain that I found in central Texas when I visited my son, Alan, and his family for two weeks recently.

The purpose of the Texas trip was obvious, to hold my new baby granddaughter, Paisley Grace, as she wiggled and stretched, yearning to explore the world around her but frustrated by the fact that she is only 4 months old and cannot run and jump, let alone walk or crawl. It was enough for me just to hold her and look with awe into her beautiful face. There is no virtual hug or kiss that can take the place of the real thing.

Being back in the U.S. after one year away was an interesting sensation. Besides being disoriented and jet lagged from the 21 hour flight, 2 hour drive to Johannesburg Airport from home and lay-over in Washington D.C., all I desired for the first 4 days was to gorge myself on TexMex food and drink “filtered” coffee instead of instant Nescafe. My son even commented that I was making noises as I wolfed down refried bean leftovers from days ago.

Had the family changed much? I don’t think so. But, I felt different…. a bit slower paced in my attitudes towards life, expectations of the day, not so rushed, maybe a bit more accepting of differences….. The qualities of taking each day at a time, “stopping to smell the roses,” living in the moment, are not attributes I have in the past identified with. But, here, in Africa the culture focuses more on the processes of life rather than end results. Everyone here is touched by loss so often. I can only surmise that they find the joy they do through the emphasis on personal relationships and connecting with each other at such a personal level. Africans have a term for this called “ubuntu.” Ubuntu is the oppsisite of competing with one another to achieve something at the expense of the other person. It is the philosophy that all people are dependent on each other for the success and happiness of all. If there is any food, then it is shared with all who are hungry until it runs out. I imagine that living in Africa for another year will increase my understanding and practice of ubuntu. I am glad of that.

In public discourse in the U.S., there seemed to be some changes from when I left in mid 2006. For one, there seems to be more focus and concern about protecting the environment, especially by corporations and local and state governments. The one surprise I did experience in general conversations was that there is still so much debate on the existence of global warming???