Yesterday I got my booster shot and last night I had a fitful sleep as every muscle in my body ached and my fever peaked at 102. Feeling sick for barely 24 hours was a reminder of how lucky I am. I had the good fortune to be born into a country where wealth has secured our ability to choose not to get an often fatal illness just by the simple act of allowing that jab into our arms. In many other parts of the world sixty seven would look so different. Without the premium health care we enjoy I might have died from one of those times I got pneumonia following an upper respiratory infection, or that precancerous lump that was discovered in a routine mammogram would have grown and morphed into a cause of death. We, all of you in my community, are so lucky and sometimes we need to be reminded by a fever that we know will ultimately be short-lived.
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It is beginning to look like fall here in Virginia. The leaves are starting to change and the weather is even less predictable than it was all summer. Having spent my entire life in California I didn't realize that seasons really can be distinct. Where it often stayed warm through the middle of October in California, the coolness has become a constant beginning at the end of September here in the mid-Atlantic. Last week-end we visited Charlottesville in our effort to get to know our new home state. We took our kayak out on a beautiful lake; we were reluctant at first. The weather forecast was gray with a chance of drizzle. We have learned a new way to embrace our opportunities here. Where we would have waited for a clear and sunny day in California to enjoy our kayak, we find we must shift our perspective of what is a "nice day" in Virginia. Gray skies and no rain, and not another soul on the lake, it was its own kind of magical day.
We visited Monticello while we were there. I remember going to Monticello as a young girl but I certainly don't remember a tour of the slave quarters. Charlottesville is firmly in the South, full of the shameful history of slavery. The story of Thomas Jefferson has changed in the past 50 years. No longer just the great statesman who was instrumental in the creation of our democracy, we learned that he was also a sometimes brutal slave owner. Monticello would not exist in all its glory without the unpaid work of the enslaved people. It was a moving and scandalous tour hearing the stories and the names of the slaves who worked so hard to give Thomas Jefferson his lucky life. I think finally the complete story is being acknowledged.
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It is hard to believe that we have lived here almost a year now. We now have Virginia driver's licenses, our car has a license plate that states "Virginia is for Lovers", and we recently registered to vote in preparation for a critical gubernatorial election. This next week-end we have our first visitors from California. All indications are that we are here to stay. And yet...everyday I am struck by the fact that we left everything and everyone we know to transplant ourselves closer to our children. Everyday I think about my California life and feel a sharp pang of loss, while I live my Virginia life and feel the wonder of the newness, of the possibilities. I am straddling two lucky lives.