I think in a way the world is obsessed with the idea of “home.”  Numerous movies and books and songs produced consistently are all dedicated to the fact that where you are from is your home and the place you can never escape from—good or bad. Stephen King, for example, a master of imagination and ideas, seemingly cannot escape Maine. I’ve read interviews by the author where he laughs at his own inability to escape home. He uses the location (sometimes fictional towns in the state) as his backdrop for many of his literary works.  

For so long I had thought of myself as a person who would never leave Duluth. I have done it before, yet I always come home. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is that draws me to this place. I hate the nine-month winters. The potholes we call streets make me blind with rage. I can’t stand the welfare system here and the plethora of loopholes that allow way too many able-bodied people to sit around with way too much time on their hands and get paid for it.  In fact, there are more things I dislike about Duluth, Minnesota, than things I like. So it’s kind of funny that I struggle to NOT be here.  But that might change. I finally found a place that I could be totally satisfied with. It’s called Hawaii—don’t laugh! I get it that a lot of people “could” be happy living in Hawaii, but I think I could go there and never ever look back.

This past January my family and I spent time on the island of Kauai. If you have never been, it might be hard to picture how perfect it is, but for all intents and purposes, this place is heaven on earth.  The smell is enough to grasp your soul and make you forget anywhere else. Imagine if every day you awoke to the smell of ocean breeze and fresh flowers. Seriously, all the time. No WLSSD scent wafting through the fog... And the weather! Even at night or in the pouring rain in the middle of January, it’s warm. Every day you could leave your home in flip flops and a tank top and never have to think about starting your car to warm it up or grabbing a coat and hat. The beauty of the island is breathtaking. Flowers and palm trees and white sand beaches. In this picturesque paradise it feels as though you are truly dreaming, because how could something look so perfect all of the time? But it does—it truly does. I had this idea once that if life ever got to be too much here and I couldn’t take it anymore, then I could go and live in Hawaii and be homeless and be perfectly happy.

The “homeless” part of that might sound odd, but believe me, I’m jealous of the homeless people who live there. I saw many of them and they had seemingly the right idea. Large hammocks hanging from palm trees right on the beach, steps from the ocean. Palm fronds sheltering them from any rain. The warmth of the air really leaves the whole needing a fire business up for option. Food is basically hanging from the trees: large clumps of fresh bananas right over your head—which would be for me the only issue, as I’m deathly allergic to bananas, but other fruits and oh my gosh, chicken. I had heard about the chickens in Kauai, but you really have to see it to believe it. Chickens literally run around like we see squirrels here. So catch yourself a chicken, and viola!—free food.

The other day someone shared a story with me that sort of burst my “live in Hawaii and be homeless” bubble. Yet I have to share the idea because it’s actually brilliant, and maybe we in Duluth especially could learn a thing or two from Hawaiian influence. Parts of Hawaii have adopted what is known as the “one way ticket” act. It seems other people before me—shocking as it is—had my idea about living homeless in Hawaii and living off the land... but they wrecked it. They didn’t live off the land like was my plan—they went to Hawaii and abused the state’s welfare and medical, indebting the state and causing a deficit (SOUND FAMILIAR??).Well, Hawaii said no more and decided to kick the freeloaders out, offering them a one-way ticket via boat or air travel to get back to the mainland where they came from and stop draining Hawaiian resources. I’m not referring to the mentally ill or disabled here—I do understand that some people face obstacles not simply written off as laziness. I’m talking about the people who could make their own living but choose not to.  I think Hawaii has the right idea.

This is brilliant. Why can’t we do that? “Oh really, you thought you would come to Duluth and live on welfare and NOT contribute to society? Okay, well, here’s a ticket. Get on that nice little bus over there and sayonara, sweetheart.” I love this plan.  Of course, it puts a damper on my “homeless Hawaii” fantasy, but that’s all right. I’m still tempted to move there. Even if I have to work every second of my life to afford living there, it’s still worth it.  To see and live in beauty every day would truly be food for the soul.

Although Duluth is my “home,” I get really frustrated that we seem to continually be on the down slope without big ideas to change it. Why can’t we adopt some sort of legislation like Hawaii? Why can’t we ever “clean up,” too?  I wonder of course whether if I did leave, I would then become obsessed with Duluth, writing about it and fantasizing about it.

At the end of the day, I’m not a fan of many little Duluth aspects. I think it’s sad that we demolished a good working school system, and I’m tired of my vehicles being abused on the streets. I don’t like the welfare crutch offered to too many, and I’m afraid our police have become a little too “control happy.”  I want to love my home again and I want to feel proud of it. Either I want change here, or I want a one-way ticket to paradise.