Living Over the Rainbow

“Human society would be like an idealistic couple forever getting tired of one place and changing their residence regularly once every three months, for the simple reason that no one place is ideal and the place where one is not seems always better because one is not there.” This is noted in the first few pages of Lin Yu Tang’s book, The Importance of Living.

Rick became a fan of Tang, a Chinese philosopher, and this paperback now lies in pieces from reading and rereading his book. He has so many ideas that resonate with us. You will hear more about him in later blogs.

This comment made me pause, however. Unlike Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, where she longingly sang about a place beyond the rainbow, we think we are living the dream right now. Where we are. Right here in Florence. Here we are in Italy and we DO think that this place is ideal. There is nothing we dislike about our home here in this gorgeous city, this magnificent Renaissance town which truly emulates everything we love. We wake up invigorated every day and have not felt any pangs of remorse for something we knew would be our new normal, living seasonally in our favorite places. Our philosophy has not been altered.

But, Tang notes that one believes that the next place is better because one is not there. Life is greener on the other side of the hill. So one becomes restless and has the desire to discover the next location, the next destination.

This is where I beg to differ from his statement.

Okay. So today we decided to take a journey to San Marino. Did this make us restless? Do we need to see what’s over the next hill?

A trip is an exploration. It is NOT dissatisfaction with our current home. That is the difference. The journey away from our city of Florence did not mean we were unhappy with our life in the city. Adventurers at heart, we have to explore constantly.

There is a newness about exploring that feeds our soul. And we had such a great two days. We met Cinzia in Arezzo who lovingly prepared a monstrous breakfast feast for us at her guest house. We drove through quaint villages and hiked in a new country, San Marino. And we realized that we still love the Chianti region of Italy as we meandered down the roads past vineyards and back into Florence, the sunset highlighting the color of the grapes. And with an offloaded map on google, the ride was a breeze.

We do like change. That is a fact. But, we believe that we are happy wherever we are. Where we live at any given time. The point that we have MANY happy places does not diminish that fact that we desire to live in numerous locations. We are not constantly looking for the next rainbow. We are in the middle of the rainbow NOW. And we are profoundly happy.

Lin Yu Tang, I take offense at your statement. Rick and I are not looking to leave our new home because we see another brighter possibility. We are leaving because there are so many delightful places to discover. We already live over the rainbow.

Viviamo sopra l’arcobaleno.