The good that completely disconnecting for a week can do for your mind...and soul...

[NRaleighLiberal]

Off the coast of North Carolina is a tiny island - Ocracoke - with 13 or so miles of pristine beach (National Seashore, no houses...just a few people, and lots of sand, ocean, sea birds - you get the picture). You can only get there by ferry. There is a little village with, say, 500 people who live there year round and lots of houses to rent - no traffic lights, movie theaters, theme parks, water parks. It is about nature, the beach, the Pamlico sound, estuaries in which you can kayak and sneak up on Great Blue Herons and snap their picture.

My wife and I always look forward to an escape there, and we got to do one this spring (after our heirloom tomato plant sales cooled off). We spent countless hours walking, biking, kayaking, reading, doing crosswords....we didn't watch TV or read a newspaper and I didn't surf the web. I just got lost in the world of natural beauty, peace, my remarkable 31 year old friendship with my wife - I did lots of thinking. of course, it was good to be in a place with nothing BUT anti-amendment 1 signs (Ocracoke is quite unique in being a very blue dot in a very red part of the state) - but being around people who relished natural beauty, who were diverse and different and independent thinking and not lock step - it all made me realize a few things......of how horribly tragic/sad/wasteful it must be to go through life with a republican/conservative, fear driven, authoritarian world view. It made me realize how those of us who are liberal, progressive - call it what you will - have the good fortune of being able to live in the now, appreciate what we have, yet be watchful of those who would ruin it. And it also made me realize how difficult it would be for the far right - be it politics or religion driven - to control the masses if people would turn off the TV, get back out into the world, experience the beauty and power of nature - and think. Of course it isn't all that simple - but TV and churches are certainly very effective vehicles for driving mind set and opinion. By choosing to not participate in either, the distinction becomes stark and clear.

So I am back to reality - back to hoping a possible job offer comes through, back to fretting about my two daughters' travels through life. Back to paying a bit more attention to what's going on in politics - vacations sure are meant to do just what it did - elate or relax or clear the mind or reset priorities. Each time we do this we try to bring back pieces of what we learn, to try to bring that feeling of peace a bit better into our everyday lives. But perhaps because things are so polarized, because most of TV is such a wasteland, because we on the left seem to be so relentlessly under attack - this vacation seemed just a bit more needed than most, disconnecting felt better than usual ....and coming back to real life seems to be tinged with just a bit more "blah" resignation!

Back to fighting the good fight.....and reading the good things here on DU!

[livetohike]

1. Awww Ocracoke

Is the Pony Island Inn still in business? I haven't been to the island since 1993, but before that, especially in the mid to late 70's we would go down for a three day weekend (from Pittsburgh).

Glad you had a good time. Rejuvenated as only the sea and sand and ocean breezes can do....

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. It sure is! Our first visit there was 1993! It's changed much, and little....

still a relative bargain in the off season (we would not hazard a trip between June and August! way too crowded....Thanksgiving is lots of fun there, as is Christmas!).

[livetohike]

3. Good to hear!

We are back on the East coast now after years of living in CA. Time for a trip to Ocracoke, I think . September was one of my favorite months to be there.

[Speck Tater]

4. Ah, what memories!

I spent a week there last summer, and a few days in DC on my way back home to Orygun. My first time ever seeing the Atlantic Ocean, having grown up on the Pacific. It was good for the soul. I left just before the coast braced for the hurricane, and just a few days after that minor earthquake in DC.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. In Cuba, we were completely cut off from U.S. media

Our cell phones didn't even work (U.S. phone companies take part in the embargo and don't make agreements with the Cuban phone service like the ones they make with providers in other countries), and what Internet they had was so pokey that the members who tried it gave up.

After a day or two, all of us remarked on how well we slept. It was as if a source of tension had been temporarily lifted.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. Two pics to sum up the week.....