Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/48856
THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Eyes Newly Opened THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET by MARGARET DICKSON Travel is important to me. I love to go to new places where ever they might be, and nothing is quite as exciting as experiencing an entirely new culture in a faraway place. It always brings home the reality that no matter know different we may seem, we are all human beings with the same hopes and dreams for ourselves and our children. This wanderlust comes from a person who has spent most of her life right here in our own community, watching it grow from just another sleepy eastern North Carolina small town to a sophisticated metropolitan area with residents whose families have been here since before the American Revolution and people who arrived only recently from all corners of our globe. There is a certain comfort, perhaps even smugness, in having lived in one place for a long time. There is a temptation to think that we know all about our place — all its history, all its foibles, all it has to offer. While I may well know more than some newcomers, it has come home to me in spades recently that my view of our community refl ects my own friends, associations, activities and routines more than anything else. neighborhood primary school, schools of choice with a Montessori curriculum and Spanish immersion, several independent schools, as well as a number of schools affi liated with local churches. They chose their neighborhood school this year, but they understand, as the younger Dicksons did, that education is an adventure every year, and next year may call for a different option. The lovely young couple moved here from a larger city, and I think they expected their many options, but I learned a great deal in the process. Many of us like to think of ourselves as sophisticated citizens of the world, but when I think about my own daily orbit, it is largely confi ned to my own family, friends and acquaintances and my location in our community. I frequent my neighborhood grocery, my exercise classes are not far away and my friends are nearby as well. That is surely why, when I found myself rolling down Highway 87 and across Fort Bragg one evening after dark last week, I was thoroughly astounded. The traffi c leaving I also know that our community, which has been my home almost all my life, is far richer and more layered than most of us know and that those of us who call this spot in North Carolina home are no more and no less talented, interesting and productive than our sisters and brothers on the other side of the world. Someone else's experience of our community, no matter how long he or she has been here, will be entirely different than mine but equally true and valid. Several small recent happenings have brought this reality home to me — that our growing and diverse community has a lot more going on than many long-time residents can even imagine. I have some new friends, "a lovely young couple," as my mother would surely have said. They came to our community two years ago for the husband to take a new job, bringing with them two pre-school children. As the older child prepared for "real" school, the mother and I had many conversations about what was available here and what was appropriate for her special child. It was an education for her — and for me. In the 20-some years since the fi rst Precious Jewel made that transition, there has been tremendous change. I do not remember ever considering anything but our neighborhood primary school. The biggest questions facing the young Dickson clan at that point was whether we could get Precious Jewel up and ready in time for the school bus or whether one of us would have to drive to school. To no one's particular surprise, we drove to school in the mornings and waited for the bus's return in the afternoons. The lovely young couple, though, had plenty of options — their Fayetteville and Fort Bragg for the bedroom communities to our north was a frustrating bumper to bumper crawl. It looked exactly like the traffi c on I-40 around Research Triangle Park in Raleigh at the end of any workday! I know the people in those cars were not enjoying that jam and were ready to be at home or where ever they were heading, but I also know they understood that traffi c is now just a given in the life of our urban community. I have begun thinking about what I will take on a trip to a faraway place shortly after the holidays. I am looking forward to learning more about a nation that is an emerging player on the world stage, and I know I will learn from this trip and that my life will be enriched having visited a place so unlike our own. I also know that our community, which has been my home almost all my life, is far richer and more layered than most of us know and that those of us who call this spot in North Carolina home are no more and no less talented, interesting and productive than our sisters and brothers on the other side of the world. My eyes are going to be open wider as I travel my own orb. MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, Up & Coming Weekly, COM- MENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Ytrvurvvbvuvurru vvyryrvx 484-6200 www.upandcomingweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 6, 2011 UCW 5