Tomorrow

Since we live in the Redding Airport flight path, I sit here every morning with my coffee and hear United Flight 6820 depart for SFO ... wheels up at 5:46 according to my itinerary; it does usually fly over the house between 5:50 and 6:00 a.m. consistently (there it goes now as I type this - at 5:53 a.m.) Tomorrow a.m. I will be on it.

I'm excited. Not in a "I'm going to Disneyland" kind of way of course. But still.....

I got into an e-mail debate yesterday afternoon with a good friend, over the political aspects of Haiti. I don't want to delve into that too much here; but her comments re-affirmed something I realize more and more as I've read extensively trying to educate myself as much as possible before I take this trip. And that is that there will be no way to tell Reg's story, or the story of Haiti and its people as it relates to Reg's story - without touching on things political. This country has long been at the mercy of global politics and economics - there is no way to write about it without acknowledging that.

I've been advised to be careful about admitting I'm no expert on Haiti; might undermine my credibility when it's time to write. That's wise advice in some ways, but I think whatever story I'm meant to write here will need to develop with a foundation of my own honest education about Haiti's history - I didn't know it, and to be blunt? Until now I didn't care. My impressions were of horrendous living conditions for the people, the majority of which are extremely poor; constant political upheavel; a series of corrupt and brutal dictators; sad, sad country that I had no reason to pay attention to except to occasionally sigh over another depressing newspaper headline.

That's changed obviously. And the more I read - many perspectives, many sources - the more I come to understand. And the more I come to understand? The more empathy I have for this country - for what her people have and are still going through. Haiti's story, is perhaps not what your impressions might deem it to be either.

So this wanna-be writer, middle-aged, relatively well-off white woman from Northern California thinks she's going to fly off to Haiti, understand it all, and come back and convert the masses - how naive can one person get. See ... I hear some of you (I'd insert a smiley face here, but I'm trying to avoid those ...) I also hear some of you thinking life is an adventure, go see what you can learn girl. Both opinions make me smile, for different reasons of course. Obvious what I'm doing and my perceptions will be viewed through the individual perspectives of each person reading about it ... c'est la vie, as the French say; that is life, and how things are.

I cannot change the base personal beliefs you might bring to following all of this. But I can ask you to read what I write with an open mind and leave room to maybe change your impressions. I'm writing about a country far away, and people culturally different. But I believe there are universal stories of humanity to be found ... we can all grow from listening to them with an open mind, trying to find commonality instead of differences; seeing lessons offered; perhaps finding ways to help and heal.

I see the new Johnny Depp "Alice In Wonderland" opens while I'm gone. Something to look forward to when I get back! Also not a bad analogy to use as I go off to finish packing the next 8 days of my life into a backpack ~ including Cipro and Immodium! I do indeed feel a little bit like Alice, about to jump down the rabbit hole, into a completely different world.

Be well all ... thanks for coming on the journey with me in spirit. I'll check in here if I can; not sure what my connection ability will be while I'm actually in Haiti. At the minimum, I'll post something when I get back into Miami.

Stories about the Mad Hatter, and the Chesire Cat? :-) (ok ... just ONE ... smiley face)