Hometown

Have you ever returned to your hometown after a long time away, to find so many things changed, and so many things the same? Like a midnight drive through a grotesquerie of memories and imagination.

I find my first love that way tonight, winding through and around the lazy, darkened streets of Asheville. I have always loved this place, and always will, regardless of what the people here may be or do. It's my religion: The Religion of Place. Why does anyone settle in an unknown area, or stay when they could be safer or more successful elsewhere? Even beyond the people we interact with, the Places we inhabit are holy and full of power. If we let the land speak to us, we learn inherent secrets of the Earth. If you know how to combine the magic of the land with the efforts of humans, you can benefit from both camps.

Here I shift seamlessly from wending through woods, to strolling down streets. In Buncombe can I combine the two sides that make up my spiritual genetics: raw Nature, and human gatherings.

My parents gave me biological roots, and fostered my growth, but the mother of my soul is Asheville, and its father is the Appalachians.

My literary forebear wrote, "You Can Never Go Home Again," but it is merely that one cannot return to the home one once knew. Remembering that your home will always change, the moreso the longer your absence, you can return as often as you like!

NB

Night Watchman

Sometimes, I end up as one of the only human beings awake in this town.....

It fascinates me that towns very close to major Interstates can just shut down after about 9 or 10pm. I work in a hotel, though, so for me, there is no such thing as a "sleep schedule." I work any and all shifts, so it is not unheard of for me to have a week on the schedule where I will work from 7am-3pm one day, later I will be in from 3p-11p, and then maybe finish the week out on 11pm-7am! Oh, the joys of hospitality.....

This was a great industry for me to get into, straight out of college. College kids don't know the meaning of the term "sleep schedule!" I, least of all.

Now, the trouble is that everyone in hospitality who works at the Front Desk stands (or sits, lucky bastards) here and says to him/herself, "Man, I have a lot of free time in between doing things. I could write a book or something!" Some people actually pull that off! (I'll let you know as soon as my friend is done with his post-modern take on classic Southern Gothic literature, in part inspired by Stephen King) I, on the other hand.....

Well, does it look like I'm standing here writing a book? Literally, not metaphorically, obv's....

Of course, about 4am, you start seeing the infomercials, and then you know it's in for the long haul.....The lucky ones, like myself, work in a hotel with its own restaurant, so you'll see a few coworkers in around 5 or 6-ish am or so, to start opening breakfast. Then, at least, something is happening.

Until then, I keep myself entertained by...the Intarwebz!!


So how about you folks -- what's the most boring job you've ever had? Or comparable. And isn't it nice to get paid to do nothing? ;-)


NB