Returning to my Hometown

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  Wilmington, Delaware, United States
Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Down by the Brandywine River, I remembered how enjoyable Delaware can be.

Delaware: the place I was born back in 1971.

I was hiking with my dad along the banks of the river as spring ephemeral wildflowers were blooming along the trail. We passed a Cooper's Hawk eating a freshly-killed duck near a small oxbow full of turtles. This was the protected part of Delaware. Elsewhere, progress had changed the landscape--new homes spread throughout New Castle County along with roads, malls, McDonald's, new industries, and Borders.

Since I left Delaware back in 1990, the population of New Castle County has more than doubled. Look at your credit card. More than likely your Visa payment goes to Wilmington, Delaware. Boats and companies also make Delaware their home, if in name only. It's easy to incorporate in Delaware. It's easy to be comfortable in Delaware.

The themes that are playing out in Delaware are the same ones being played out throughout the United States: growth, livability, sprawl. Bulldozers contour old farmland and new houses are constructed. Public transportation is poor and most people drive. Then the roads become overcrowded and people complain about roads, so a new road is built, soon to be developed as the process repeats itself. Call it Anywhere, U.S.A.

Anywhere U.S.A has many benefits. Anything you want is at your fingertips. Everything can be bought from large warehouse stores. If you want it, you got it. If you're hungry, you got it your way. Hospitals are within an easy drive as are malls, colleges, restaurants, museums, parks, golf courses, and ball parks. Who wouldn't want that?

While I was visiting Anywhere, U.S.A., I was immersed in this lifestyle. I became part of the traffic jams. I read books at Borders and ate the Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake at Borders. After all, it was a good place to hang out with my sister and brother-in-law. I read the Star Wars Episode III comic book as the movie was coming out after I'd be in remote areas of China (it's going to be good, I think). I picked up insulation for my sister's attic at the Home Depot, went to the mall, and drove all over the place. It felt decadent living the Cheesecake Life.

The Anywhere U.S.A. Cheesecake Life is a part of me. Its a part of the U.S.A. It's not Saturday afternoon BBQ or running through sprinklers with your kids or sitting on the porch steps--that's Somewhere U.S.A. Somewhere U.S.A. is a part of me too. Both of these qualities exist throughout America and are a part of all Americans (U.S). Anywhere, however, is slowly taking over Somewhere, creeping, sprawling, entering our minds (no, this isn't 'The Matrix').

I'd rather be Somewhere than Anywhere any day, although I do like cheesecake.

Within this setting is the real reason behind my visit--seeing my family and some friends along the way too. My mom and dad are both retired from Winterthur Museum and DuPont, respectively. My dad is enjoying continued study of languages and is constantly listening his Walkman playing foreign language radio shows he tapes from his old HAM radio. Sprawled on the couch with a laptop tuned to The Weather Channel.com, he watches the bird feeders for the goldfinches and cardinals, binoculars at his side.

Sometimes it's hard for mothers not to be mothers when their son arrives home, but my mom passed the test as we took a road trip down to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, went on family hikes, and watched old home videos, tears of laughter rolling down our faces. Who knew that she was such a dramatic actress until we all watched Yanomamo, an old Unitarian church musical about the rainforest. From her I learned the difference between regular dishware and porcelain (you can see light through porcelain).

My sister Carolyn, nine years younger, is now a grown woman. I was eighteen and she was nine when I left Delaware, and I hadn't seen her for more than a few days here and there since. Two weeks with her was great as we reconnected after fifteen years: playing Dungeons and Dragons (Luckily my magician character saved two of her friends from death by flesh-eating worms by summoning two monkeys, who ate the worms and chased them away. If you don't understand this...Never mind.); running around with Iggy, her new dog; and reading books in Borders. Her new husband and my new brother-in-law, Scott, joined us on these adventures, and I'm enjoying getting to know him (why do we have to say "in-law" it sounds weird). As a third degree black belt, he advised me on self-defense tactics. I'll be practicing.

Aside from seeing large areas of farmland and forests turned into cookie cutter homes, I enjoyed returning to Delaware, walking along Brandywine Creek, watching home videos, and eating cheesecake at Borders with my sister and brother (in-law).

On April 25, I left for JFK airport, taking the Greyhound to Port Authority, then the subway out to Howard Beach station. At 11:30 pm, the China Airways plane left the runway and I looked east across Long Island and southern Connecticut, watching as the sodium lamp-lit cities sprawled into the blackness and slowly disappeared beneath a canopy of clouds.

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