Lonely? or Just a Way of Life?
In PARADE magazine today, an article on pages 13-14 describes an island in the middle of the south Atlantic Ocean: Tristan de Cunha. Here’s a link to an online article about that island. http://www.sthelena.se/tristan/tristan.htm
I would like to know what you think of living one’s life there, and then raising a family who loves their homeland so much that they would never think of moving away. They have electricity, running water, and internet. They also have one large grocery store, a pub (but no restaurants), a swimming pool, a post office, a hospital with SIX beds, and a golf course. No cars, phones, or elevators let alone shopping malls or professional sports teams. Kids do have video games; fishing is the main industry – no surprise for an island – and there a lot of sheep.
One last interesting thing that was mentioned in the article: because the island is volcanic, 45 years ago the entire island had to be evacuated due to an eruption and resulting lava fires. The citizens could not return for two years but they returned because they were homesick. I imagine they had seen enough of cars (many, especially kids, had never even seen one) and no doubt noise and pollution.
While I enjoy taking a peaceful, quiet, isolated vacation and would like to appear sophisticated and say “I wish I lived there. It must be so beautifully calming to support yourself and have 270 friends just like you, lots of wild birds to watch….” I wonder how long I would last? I hope the location does not become a destination for rich, curious tourists, but somehow I think the Tristanites would not allow that. They seem to be doing just fine all by themselves.
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