A little perspective.

One of the things that I have always tried to do with the boys when we travel is to have them be "in the culture" of wherever we are. We do not stay holed up in a resort and we try to meet as many local people as we can. When we stayed at Atlantis at the beginning of this trip, that was the first time we had ever "vacationed" like that, but I knew that we would be ending our trip more in the manner that we are accustomed to.

When we first got to the townhouse in Kissimmee, Florida, I was disappointed. It didn't measure up to our "vacation expectations". We got spoiled in the Bahamas and on our cruise and the townhouse was a bump back in to reality. I am surprised that there has been so much to learn by living in a little townhouse in the middle of Florida. We are in the American vacation mecca. One of the largest tourist destinations in the world. Depending on who you ask, "The Happiest Place on Earth". Amidst all the happiness though, is a city that is suffering greatly in the throes of the american recession. As soon as we got here I could feel something was "off", but it took me about a week to figure out what it was. Everything is just a little bit broken and run down. WalMart is full of BMW's and well dressed families buying no name pasta, cheezits and wine - all the while trying to keep their kids from touching anything that the "poor" people have been touching. It is odd. There are townhouse complexes all around that are typically full of vacationers, but are now full of people who have lost their homes. Then there are large, gated suburbs with big, beautiful houses and they are full of For Sale signs and garbage. All through the streets and shopping centers, there are boarded up businesses, broken signs, clearance signs and overgrown landscaping. It is like that all around us for miles and miles - unless you drive down the 192 or the 536 - both those roads go straight in to Disneyworld. Once you cross the last junction on the way to Disney, you are transported to another world. The grass is perfect, the streets are spotless, the cars and buses are clean and shiny. There is not a piece of trash out of place or a chip of paint missing. It took the boys until day three of Disney to notice this. Since then we have been talking and learning a lot about recession. What is it? What does it mean? Why does that make people lose their houses? Does it end? What happens to all the people? Why didn't it affect Disneyworld? Big questions with mostly crappy answers.

It is weird to be vacationing in a land of prosperity, but living in an area of despair. It is hypocritical. It is uncomfortable. It has also been an eye opening experience for us and a humbling one.

"How can we help the people?", one kid asks me. Hmmmmm, that's a tough one. We know that there is a family in our complex that is struggling so we will pack up all our unused and leftover food and things at the townhouse and leave it at their front door when we leave and we will donate the clothes and books we brought with us to a little thrift store that we found that has pretty bare shelves and racks. Those are just the little things though and I know the question that he asked was meant to be answered with a bigger answer. That is going to take a few more days I think.