Maeve, that comment was below you. "Country" WAS in quotes.

We live in a town that is full of people capitalizing on tourism. At this time of year we say we have to sneak out at night to paste up the red leaves because the paying trade will be here next week all pissed off that "they" (WE) "don't have" the leaves we advertised, to show off. It was a dry summer, they're turning early, and the peak that usually comes the first week of October is happening now in most areas they pay to go see.

To make up the difference in "fun" and bring them back next year, many of us will be tap-dancing in whatever venue we appear-- church, restaurants, WalMart cashiers, etc.-- to give them what they think they want, so we can afford to stay in business the rest of the year and serve one another.

We ARE all "real country"-- that's not what the tourist think they are paying to visit.

But what they take home anyway, as dust on their shoes, is tall tales from the "country" plus a piece of our hearts-- the real us-- because we give them that, too.

That is being "real," and that is reality in a tourist town that lives on tourist bucks.

I'm sorry if it seems unreal to you, but it's no different from walking into a Chinese restaurant as a friend (and speaking as friends to the workers, and hearing their perfect English), or walking in as a tourist looking for a little thrill of multiculturality, and hearing only Pidgin spoken to you by the wait staff. You get what you pay for.

But you also get what you give, and if you give yourself, you get a little piece back from the other person.

Hardi and I live in this reality more than fulltime and we do not need to be preached at about it, by anyone who does not live the ministry life fulltime or the tourist town life.

Rant over. But don't address me that way again, because when you do-- you insult the people we live with here who live that same truth.

~Susan