Someplace Else

I am, by luck of the draw, living out my life in the second half of the 20th century and the opening years of the 21st century.  I might have wished for a different time in which to live, but I wasn't consulted about this matter.

Fate, I guess, has me spending my adult life in a body that would benefit from a couple more inches of height and several less pounds of weight.  And, given that certain things are giving out and breaking down in my body, it would be nice if the repairs were easier, less painful, and less expensive.  Again, I was not consulted.

I am, because of choices I have made, living out the majority of my life in Central Indiana...my most recent years and my soon-to-be retirement years are being spent in Bloomington, which some would suggest is the northern boundary of South-Central Indiana...I am not going to quibble...to me Bloomington, Indianapolis, Greencastle, and Avon are all Central Indiana towns. 

Northern Indiana, where I was born and raised was OK...although I am still given to bad dreams whenever I hear the words, "Lake Effect Snow!" 

Los Angeles, where I spent the middle years of the 1960s decade, was nice.  Vincennes and Jeffersonville, very much Southern Indiana, were pleasant towns.

But I have to admit that there are times when I wish I was someplace else.

Someplace Else just might not be as stressful.
Or it might have a lower cost-of-living.
Or it might be warmer than it is where I live today...with snow on the ground.

Someplace Else might afford more justice than is possible where I reside now.
Someplace Else might not sanctify unjustifiable violence...militarism...and mass murders...in the names of freedom and religion.
Someplace Else might not promote some silly and deadly notion that people have a "right" to bear and brandish arms.
Someplace Else might not be populated by people who enjoy their homophobia and bigotry.
Someplace Else might make it way more difficult to offer up personal charity as a gloss-over for what is really needed: enacted social justice!
Someplace Else might not glorify war and make heroes of all those who fight in them.

Of course...sadly...Someplace Else has a total population on one.

I might want to go there...but I won't. 
I can't, really...because that kind of Someplace Else doesn't exist.

Too bad, that.  Too bad.

The kind of Someplace Else that will change the way things are will need to be created by those of us who know that change is needed...and that progress is the enemy of the status quo.