As someone who grew up in an exotic land, I can understand Cokie Roberts' aversion to Obama visiting his home town for a vacation. My coworkers always look askance at me when I speak of saving my vacation time to visit the exotic locale where I grew up, so I know the routine.
Interested in fun vacations? It's below the fold.
You see, I was raised in the exotic land of Virginia. You may have heard of it. It has lots of interesting history. Lots of fascinating landmarks. Plenty of outdoor life. And you can even get Internet access and cable TV there.
But it also used to be part of a foreign country...two, in fact. The British Empire and the Confederate States of America. Talk about exotic! Why, anyone who has ever lived there might almost be considered a foreigner with strange ideas about America.
And I understand the sentiment, that's one reason why I moved out here to the not-so-exotic world of Los Angeles. Because the foreignness of Virginia really troubled me. And I thought that I should live somewhere more "normal."
My problem, of course, is that my coworkers don't understand me. They look askance when I tell them I save all of my vacation time every year just so I can go back to the exotic land of my youth, and visit my family.
"Why not go on a cruise?" they say. "Or take a trip down to Tijuana?"
But I persist in the folly of wanting to go back to the place I was raised 2-3 times a year...if only for no other reason than to try to convince my family to move out of that exotic place into a more American venue.
A place more like I think America should be.
And when I'm sitting on the back porch sipping lemonade with my kin, I often rail against the exoticness that is Virginia.
Because nothing says exotic like a visit to grandma's house.