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It is hard to travel up north without a certain sense of melancholy.
The what-ifs come to mind. 
What if, instead of decamping to a place we never loved for the last 30 years...
What if, instead of having jobs that demanded a big city, nay, a big city with a NASA presence, we had chosen a small city, a town, even, who would we be today? Who would our children be? What if we stayed in the same place all our lives, would we still feel this ...rootlessness? 

Last night we stumbled into an art opening in downtown Marquette and the artist came over and introduced herself. She spends three months a year in Northern Vietnam, photographing people. We chatted and she said a friend told her not to move when she retired because then, she will always just be some retired person who came there instead of having connections in the community and an identity. 

Hummmmmmm.  

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