Nashville found us relaxing with Titans and Tennesee locals alike. Fireside we heard stories about standup stints and advice on solid business investments like parking lots and public storage. Her house opened to us after meeting only the night before. Her friends were friendly and her animals abundant, even the chickens were woken to meet me. I'm not sure why anything happens at the time, why good or bad or the curious blend sweep us up with no explanations. Sometimes like this one, I can see purpose without any clues to validate it. Then my eagerness to look back with thankfulness upon a completed picture beats the desire to control an odd swirl of events intent on pushing me from my comfort zone.
He believed me when I said he had no idea how hard it was. Settling into a cultural swarm like LA as a young married couple is challenging in its own ways, like crossing the Snake River into a new world dependent only on your wagon's worth, minus maybe the threat of consumption. What they did have was each other and the very real benefit of already finding that somewhere else. So when I told him that nothing happens organically in Tinsel Town he took my word for it. After a few days though we had multiple examples, from backyard bonfires to sweet southern invites to the Waffle House following a long work day.
I wish I could say her hospitality felt natural but it was so foreign to me I couldn't help but wonder why. In the city where kings and queens are chosen overnight and by merits not listed in fables or sung about on Sundays her behavior would be suspect. Like a well structured script we know each other's intentions by the end of the first act and no good deed goes unpunished. I've enjoyed Midwestern honesty and Southern reception, enough to know she had something else. Her Western roots went where they had to when needy competitors lined up for rejection and the other like-minded humanists were anywhere else engaged in real conversations. I look forward to seeing her again, anywhere but here.
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