Rural Delivery
My Beloved Vermont,
By the time that you get this letter I shall be miles from your sparkling rivers and spruce scented air. No longer will I gaze upon your shimmering star-studded nights or your blazing blue skies. I will miss this year's blanketing of your hilltops with the unsoiled snows of winter and your fields of dandelions dancing in the sun of early spring. For my path lies in other directions and I have little choice but to seek out my destiny. As this road stretches before me, hurling me towards canyons made of unyielding steel and glass, I leave you with these thoughts to ponder as you face the challenges of days to follow.
The greatest treasure within your borders is not your pristine valleys, your sweet flowing rivers or your towering stands of maple trees but rather your Children; for it is through their deeds and accomplishments that your legacy will be forged. Instill in their hearts a love of learning and thirst for knowledge. Without this priceless gift their minds will wither like a garden left unattended. Trust not their education solely into the hands of administrators or public educators for these individuals, no matter how well meaning, can never nourish their fertile young minds with the love and devotion that you possess within your heart.
And if you find that those who instruct and care for your Children are wanting for lack of ability, fear not to cast them out. Their talents are better served on other ventures. Seek out only those who will instill the joy of learning into their lives! Look always to the future, to the discoveries and blessings that your Children will bestow upon your hills and valleys. You are the warm fertile soil of early spring in which their souls are rooted. Let them drink deeply from your essence.
Be caring and compassionate of the aged for their vision of your beauty is often clouded by the loneliness in their hearts. Uncover their wisdom, learn from their mistakes and help them to rediscover their youth in your streams and valleys. Share with them your love, for it is that love that will keep them warm during the long winter nights and allow them to forget the ache in their souls. Make their final days in your valleys filled with wonder, happiness and joy. When at last they lay down to rest, it is their spirits that will dance in your meadows and illuminate your valleys like the gentle glow of fireflies on a warm summer's night.
Be leery of large organizations who make promises of a better tomorrow for often they have agendas that are hidden from you like a winter storm hides the peaks of your majestic summits. If they have no head, rest assured that they too are lacking a heart. They are like the fires that burn within your hearth. Stand vigilant over them and they will keep you and your loved ones warm, but let them escape and run wild and they will destroy your home and leave your dreams in ashes.
Nourish those partnerships owned by your friends and neighbors for they have risked much to make their living amongst your gentle hills and plentiful valleys. Patronize and give them support, hope and understanding. Give them a rich and fertile environment in which they may flourish. Rejoice in their accomplishments when they prosper and grow, for it is only your mountains that are destined to be green not your heart with envy.
Welcome all that come to settle in your valleys with open arms and kindness. They are no longer strangers. They are now your neighbors. Show them the wonders of your countryside and let them learn the sacred ways of your seasons. Incorporate their talents and dreams into your lives and they will enrich and strengthen the fabric of your community. See them as the crocus bounding forth from the barren soil after a long hard winter. Trample them not underfoot for once crushed you! will no longer savor their sweet nectar.
Visitors are the lifeblood of your vocation and the gauge that you may use to measure your blessings. Treat them with compassion and kindness for they dwell and toil in a land filled with mistrust and suspicion. Fear not that they will come to settle in your valleys, for they would know not how to survive in such a strange and magical kingdom. Let them drink their fill of your mountains and become drunk on the sweetness of your fresh meadows. Share with them the vision that makes you special so that they may go back to their world renewed and inspired. And know that when they lay their heads down at dusk that you have given them reason to find comfort in their hearts and pleasure in their dreams.
Choose those who handle your affairs of state well for it is through their actions that you will judge and be judged by your neighbors. Welcome the ideas of newcomers but never forget the wisdom of those whose families have inhabited your hills for generations. They have a love and understanding of your land that can only be learned through time and experience. Avoid zealots who refuse to compromise and those who would put their own interests above the people that they are sworn to serve. Remember always that diversity is your strength and your vitality. For it is not only one species of tree that blankets your hillsides during the peak of autumn but a mixture of many, and only when those trees stand clustered together in the golden light of the sun is the true splendor and majesty of your valleys revealed to all.
You must sustain and nurture the Arts least your soul turn barren and you lose your humanity. As your flowers blossom in the spring and feed the eye, so it is with the Arts that your spirit will be nourished. Support your neighbor's efforts and rejoice in their talents. Dance to their music, sing with their songs and let the laughter of their voices echo throughout your hillsides.
Let all who dwell within your borders find joy and comfort in their endeavors. Remind them often to walk amongst your pasturelands and savor the wonders of your hillsides. Make not their homes a prison where they toil blindly and ignore the beauty and grandeur that abound, but let them flourish in a land filled with love, harmony, joy and peace.
My beloved Vermont I bid thee fair well! Know that it is here, nestled within your gentle hillsides, that I have found life's greatest treasures. A woman whose spirit sparkles with an intensity and passion matched only by the colors of your finest autumn's day. It is here that my only child came into being, took her first breath, and found a world filled with joy and wonder. I give thanks for the years and blessing that you have bestowed upon me. For kindling my spirit and making my heart soar with joy. For allowing me to find peace and contentment. For the solitude in your towering forests. For the friendship, love and compassion that you have generously and unselfishly shown me, and for allowing me to run barefoot laughing through your rolling hills and open meadows.
Each second, on this new path, forces me further from your heart but each second that passes forces you deeper into mine. The dazzling colors of your autumns will become a fading memory, and your gentle summer days will come to me only in my dreams. Someday, somehow I will return, and when I return I will stay for an eternity, for it has been said and I know now that it is truly so that when one dies and goes to heaven he will end up in Vermont.
hunter charnow
12 December 1997
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