A few days ago I tweeted " I love you Tahiti but I
gotta say that coming back to a sunny Portland is no bummer." I instantly
lost around 15 followers. I'm not too concerned about losing that many Twitter
fans but this made me think about something that I've encountered since I chose
to move from Tahiti to Portland, Oregon about three years ago: people want me
to live in (or at least revere) "Paradise" because it helps them
believe in a better place.
The chance of any of these people ever packing up
their lives and living on an island or even visiting that island on vacation is
small at best, but when I say that I currently prefer a US city to their image
of vacation land, it's like telling a child there's no such thing as Santa
Claus. That tropical island is like Dr Seuss's Solla Saloo "where there
never are troubles, at least very few," but like the place in that story,
one set of troubles is only replaced by another. This is life, this is planet
Earth and I hate to be the one to burst people's bubble but after the glow of
first love fades nowhere is perfect unless you have personally achieved some
kind of Nirvana.
Here's the thing: wherever you go you will probably have
to work to survive and if you grew up in the US, Europe or anywhere else
brimming with action it will be hard for you to slow down to the point where
gazing at the sea (or road or palm trees in the wind) for a few hours will
fulfill your activity needs. Not to say I don't love doing this in theory.
Right now as I sit on my deck writing to deadline to the sound of traffic,
hanging out and watching hermit crabs make trails in the sand sounds awfully
nice but years of this with little else going on? Not at this period of my life,
thanks.
It takes approximately 3.5 hours to drive around Tahiti.
Think about that for a minute. Nearly every inch is surrounded by a gorgeous,
tepid lagoon and the mountains hold lush plantations of bananas and papayas, as
well as tall cascades gushing into crystal clear pools. I love all these places
and really I don't tire of them, but over the 15 years I lived there I have
been just about everywhere, dozens of times. As much as I enjoy swimming and
hiking I am too complicated a person to be able to be happy doing only that, in
the same places, over and over again in my free moments in between work
(because wherever you go you still need money to survive). Life here in
Portland means pubs, restaurant, skiing, beaches, berry picking, varied live music
any night of the week and, most importantly, the ability to drive for hours to
get to a multitude of other places. Right now this is what I want. Maybe as I
get older I'll tire of this and want to settle back down to slow island life
but I'm not done with the continent-based lifestyle yet.
Also, your shit is your shit and no matter how balmy the
temperatures or blue the lagoon, it will be with you, always. Other people have
their shit too and you will have to deal with it anywhere there are other
humans.
Example: Last week I returned to my village, Teahupoo for the first
time in 2.5 years. A few years before I left, one of the area's biggest
families put up a gate blocking the area's other biggest family from being able
to access their homes, land and fishing grounds without paying the first,
road-owning family around $375 a piece for gate access. The whole town is in
turmoil about this and guess what? After all the time I've been gone nothing
has changed other than a few fists have swung.
On a more personal level, half
the village comes into my yard and steals my lemons, a "friend" went
in my house when we were gone and stole my kid's bunk bed and a local woman
threatened to go in my house and "break everything" because we fired
her as a house cleaner when she began working hours we never asked her to and
then demanded money from us. None of these things are a big deal on a grand
scale but to me they equal out the lonely anonymity of city life. Island
problems are more personal and they'll get to you if you don't adopt a very Zen
state of mind. Are you ready for your house and property to be communal areas?
Do you mind having things you do meld into conversations that get warped into
gossip via the "coconut radio?" If so, go try living in Polynesia.
At the end of the day for me, I'm taking a break from
both the intensity and calm of island life. It's something I'm not sure anyone
who has never lived on an island can understand. Tahiti is a wonderful place
that I love with all my heart but for now I need more. If that works against
your faith in a perfect world I'm sorry, but I suggest you try meditation.
