Kansas: The Middle of the World

Yesterday I asked one of my co-workers, who is from India, if he thought he would ever go back to live there.  He said he didn't know, because the living situation was complicated.  I thought I understood.

Then, he told me that he met his wife in Singapore when he was sent there for work.  He was supposed to stay three months, and he ended up staying five years and came back with a wife and two kids.

Now they live in Kansas.  He said they might stay here forever, because it's one place where they both feel happy. 

So there you go.  It reminds me of a little ditty I wrote after I came back from my one world trip to Australia in 1998.  I will share it with you, because I know how you love to have poetry foisted on you.

Australia Via Kansas

Rubbing swollen feet encased in gray socks,

I remember the way the sky looked when I left.

"The clouds in Kansas are different," she'd said.

The people there are, too.

Perhaps Kansas City really is the center of reality.  The Gulf Stream breaks here.  Ponder it.  Scary.  But possible.