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the place that changes you forever…
March 8, 2011
it has been very cool to see the old pics lately and hear the cool stories
about how folks discovered the island for the first time...and the deep
meaning it has to so many people...
life events can be remembered around their trips to la isla (we were married
here, honeymooned here, conceived here, brought our kids here, etc.)...
and it is amazing to me to see how the island has changed in the few years
since we first made landfall...
the island has been transformed in the last decade from a sleepy little
fishing village to an international tourist destination with many, many more
changes to come...the rate of change has become exponential...
when you think about how little changed here for a 1000 years while the Mayan
people inhabited the island and cherished her for the sacred place it was for
them for so long, the rate of change around here in the last 5 years is
numbing compared to the 50 before that...
and so as i thought about how the island has changed, a funny thing happened
along the way...something struck me about the writings of others and also what
happened within myself while discovering the magic...
i read about how folks came to fall in love with their newly adopted homeland
in the Mexican Caribbean...and realized:
this place changes people...in a very profound and meaningful way...
i know it has changed me in ways i never expected...
it is no wonder that soon this island will be overrun with gringos wanting to
get their slice of magic that seems to be missing completely from other places
they visit and from their own lives back "home"...
and no doubt there are varying levels of intoxication with la isla...mine
being a full blown, 12 step kind of addiction...
but it is real...
and it is amazing...
and so i continued wondering just how this place has changed me, and i thought
of a couple of good examples...
i often think about my neighbors...although none would i consider my best
friend, yet still many i would consider my friend...there is an unspoken
agreement that we all kind of need to get along since we live in such close
proximity...but it is not terribly difficult to coexist with a lot of really
kind, good people...
i have seen old men die, kids get a bit older, first communions, grief,
laughter and everything in between...that is what we share with our
neighbors...with each other...
and i recall back in the last neighborhood i lived in Golden,
Colorado...pretty darn suburban if you ask me...everyone seemed so busy...i
know i was...i would hardly look up to wave hello at a neighbor...and they
rarely did as well...i didnt know any of their names...not one...although i
saw them several times a week for years...
here on our street, i see the same folks day in and day out...some of these
folks i see 6 or 7 times a day...and each time i pass they smile, waive or
call out "Jimbo!"...and so it is with Ramiro and Antonio and el Negro and Luis
and Tony and Howard and Michael and Samuel and Tortuga and Margarita...and my
friend Oscar that died last year...he was one of the smiliest of the bunch...i
sure miss that guy...
and i always thought, wow, these are really nice people...
and then i thought ya know what, maybe...just maybe...it is me that is
different...i am the one that changed...
for years, i was not ready to be here...but something within me changed...
it is likely the folks back in my old neighborhood in Golden are friendly
folks, but i never took the time to stop and talk...i never knew where they
worked or what they did all day...
but i know that and more about our neighbors...and i like it...and it feels
good to walk down the street and people smile and look up and they do it 5
times a day...and so do i...
i never took the time to do that before...but i do now...and it feels good to
do that...
and i thought of another example...
i am about 99.4% weaned from US media (I still gotta have my MLB, but I can
now get it sin commercials…) and most especially from the destructively
ignorant television...it is quite liberating to know very little about what
goes on the in the world, and care even less...
i learned that from my neighbors...
the guy next store that sells elotes each night could care less about some car
bombing in some city he has never been to...and he could care less what is
gonna happen on American Idol that night...he has no TV, and seems happy...
and so it is, that another change that has occurred in me that can be debated
between me, myself and i for a while is this:
i no longer wish for more...and i wonder why...
once upon a time i was gonna be the most successful guy and retire younger
than anyone i knew...and it about killed me...
and now, without the endless propaganda on TV telling me what i should worry
about, what pill i need to ask my doctor about, how flat my tummy should be
and who just landed in rehab, i no longer worry about stupid stuff i can not
control in any way and that does not affect my life in any way...
i no longer wish for a nicer lawn, a bigger SUV, or the latest
iPod-iPad-iPhone-iPhonograph...all of which are obsolete in the eyes of many a
week after purchase...
so much of that no longer matters...i used to think it mattered, but it no
longer does...
and perhaps the debate will rage with the trio inside on what came first...the
attitude that i simply can no longer care about useless crap, or the island
that saved me from it all...
all i know, is the day i stepped off that rickety old Magana ferry for the
first time on a warm, dark, February evening...
something changed....
forever...
Jimbo
Check out these other cool businesses on Isla Mujeres!
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