Today’s Random Thought (03-JUNE-2025)

I was listening to “Back to Paradise” by .38 Special and was struck by a feeling that, in spite of not having any plans to return to the Southeastern United States to live anytime soon, it feels almost inconceivable that I would not eventually find myself living out my remaining years on the coast. Of course, the pulmonary embolism that I suffered in 2021 very easily could have taken me out of this world. I consider myself fortunate to have survived. A number of pulmonary embolism victims don’t.

I know the circumstances, the thinking, and the decisions that led me to move to Greensboro, North Carolina in 1997, out to California in 1999, and back to North Carolina in 2000. I know the circumstances and the thinking behind my decision to move to the Triangle region of North Carolina not too long after earning my undergraduate degree at East Carolina University. And 2017 isn’t so far in the rearview mirror that I have forgotten how I ended up here in rural Northern Illinois.

In my youth, I had resolved to not move more than thirty minutes from the ocean and no farther north than the Mason-Dixon line. Of course, I had also resolved never to work in a fast food restaurant and that resolution didn’t amount to much when I moved in with a young woman and needed a job and money. My time spent working in the fast food restaurant was relatively short (as was my time living with the young woman). I can’t say the same about my life spent away from the coast. A good chunk of my life to date has been spent more than an hour away from the coast and I have lived in the Midwest for just over eight years.

Perhaps I will never return to the Southeast and the coast. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I eventually do. If a bitter cold, snowy, gray, seemingly endless winter meets fond memories of sunshine, fluffy white clouds, blue skies, and crashing surf and repeated plays of Jimmy Buffett songs while drinking piña coladas and margaritas, I could see it resulting in an impulsive, snap decision to search for a new coastal home.