Good Friday Morning!
I hope it goes without saying that I love this place. I have written at length about what I love about this place, and early summer in West Virginia may be the best thing in the world - the flowers, the smell of hayfields after rain, seeing the haze build on the far off mountains.
My mom has a saying that seems applicable, if paraphrased here - “you love the sinner, you don’t love the sin” - I love this place, but that doesn’t mean I love everything about it.
I don’t love how it feels like every decision people make is a trade-off between staying here and struggling and leaving and making it. I don’t like how the people that stay make decisions between working and providing for their families, and taking jobs that hurt their health, or the quality of the place we live. I don’t like watching our state government alternate between stagnancy and mean-spiritedness.
I do think it’s a matter of time, before the people that live here start to pull together and realize that it’s us that makes this place what we want it to be - not outside investment, not tourists, not folks chasing dollars into and then out of the state. If we start to see that, then maybe I’ll live long enough to see what this place could really be.
Today’s image immediately made me think “Phoenix!” when I saw it through the viewfinder - and then immediately the idea for today’s post was born. West Virginia, and her mountains, and her people, rising - like the Phoenix.
Hope folks have a great weekend,
The Phoenix - West Virginia