crossing the divide

It's pretty often that I muse that I find it very troubling how very divisive our country is now (and how I blame Bush, but that sort of defeats the purpose of the muse).

Red states, blue states. That should be a Dr. Seuss book, not our country's social structure.

I have friends from all sorts of different backgrounds and beliefs, and while there are some things I just flat-out can't tolerate (racism or homophobia), I find that my relationships with people who believe very differently than me enrich and nourish my life.

But this isn't about me.

Brian Mann, who once tried to hypnotize me, has written this book: Welcome to the Homeland: A Journey to the Rural Heart of America's Conservative Revolution. In it he describes his attempts to find common ground with his brother, who is at the other side of the political spectrum.

Brian's sister is Lisa, who told me about the book. I've known Lisa since she moved to Sitka in late elementary school, and we know each other's families well. Funnily enough, she spends her summers about an hour away from my parents in Kansas (though lives most the year in rural Alaska). Small world.

Oh, and the hypnotizing? Slumber party madness, and he was quite disgusted when I wouldn't play along.

And seeing their picture? Makes me feel way old, since I haven't seen either of them since they were in high school - I was younger than them, but they look like OLD MEN, and they aren't THAT much older than me. (Which ties into what I said probably 100 times this weekend - "Why do we women age so well, and the men so DON'T?!")

Anyway, it looks like a good book and I'm glad he wrote it and Lisa told me about it. Sparked a conversation about how things have changed in Sitka - how all these stupid rich people have moved in and snatched up all the land (starter homes run for $400,000 there now) which has set up a real class divide. Mind you, there are only 8,000 people there. And when I was in high school, we could always tell who'd been to the quarry keggers because of their "quarry shoes" on Monday - all covered in mud and quarry slurry. The thought that any of us would have more than one pair of shoes (I'm not counting the Xtra Tuf boots because those are indispensable but usually not worn socially or to school) - well, it hadn't occurred to us.

Change - it's not always for the best.