Snippets from the Age of COVID-19: July 27, 2020.
The simple pleasures of driving down a dirt road in the countryside open up the wonders of rural life. Seeing farm animals grazing peacefully under blue skies recharges one's batteries and makes you appreciate the living space that rural living affords, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Places like these resonate within my heart since I grew up in the densely populated Greater New York Metropolitan Area. I grew up in Union City, New Jersey, where there were 52,000 people per square mile. I felt suffocated in this environment and frequently went up to the roof of my tenement building to look west towards the Meadowlands where, instead of buildings, there were large expanses of green grass.
The people that I knew were good people, it was the packed-in state that I hated. When I graduated from high school, I headed west to the Midwest where I attended university and then transferred to the Southwest. I returned to the Midwest in an even bigger city, Chicago.
I delved into computer dating and soon married my wife who came from Alberta, Canada. Seeing the gorgeous Canadian Rockies invoked a yearning to head further west. I immigrated in 1986 and settled in Calgary. I was just a 45-minute drive to the Rockies and thoroughly enjoyed hiking and camping in the enormous wilderness there.
Because of its location, Calgary grew at an unprecedented rate. The problems of urban living soon became too much for me, and we headed to a much smaller suburb of Airdrie. Life is good here. The amenities of the big city are present and the friendliness and laid-back lifestyle of the country co-exist with each other.
The ability to easily access country roads 15 minutes away from my house is a plus. I don't have to look longingly at green spaces that are so distant. This is my life and I make no apologies for it. I have come home.