"... to be or not to be..." that is the question that Hamlet asks every night during his performance at the Shakespeare Festival here in Ashland, Oregon - and that is our quandary once again. Ashland is certainly a perfect place if we go down our checklist: mountain scenery, flowering fruit trees, rows of grapevines marching up to rolling green hills, quaint neighborhoods of Victorians and Craftsman bungalows lining a downtown area that features a university, a 9-month theatrical festival at three venues, an independent film festival and a burgeoning food culture - even covered tennis courts to feed our shared addiction to hitting that little yellow ball.
When we moved to the Bay Area in 1981, I remember crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County and having the perfectly formed thought, "This is the landscape of my heart." The poetry of the thought surprised me, but it was true - the white capped Bay, ships silently steaming under the Bridge, the green Marin Headlands with their rocky outcrops - and the City side was Oz, the shining city of hills which never failed to thrill me. Many happy years and dear friends later, it's still true.
But there's a price to pay for Paradise - a price too steep for two potential retirees.
In our travels we've learned that there's no such thing as a perfect place - but that there are many, many places to love in the world. Places, like people, have their flaws, and, as with people, we often fall in love because and not in spite of them.
"My heart, being hungry
Feeds on food the fat of heart despise
Beauty where beauty never stood
And sweet where no sweet lies
I gather to my querulous need
Having a growing heart to feed..."
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay
So what's next? Maybe a perfect place, maybe not - but a place to call home... wherever that might be. We'll keep you posted.
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