Today I went to the clinic for my regularly scheduled semi-annual bloodwork, in advance of my regularly scheduled semi-annual doctor’s visit. 
All of that went fine.
On my way home I was sitting at the stoplight on 27th & Oklahoma and it dawned on me that Milwaukee no longer feels like home. It wasn’t a “feeling” I’d been anticipating. In spite the fact that we are looking forward to hitting the road I never really expected that I’d feel differently about Milwaukee than I always had: it’s where I have lived almost all my lives.
I haven’t been weaning my brain, or my heart, away from Milwaukee; but I do realize that a city is no longer where I live. Where I live is the hearts of my family and loved ones. I think some of the way I feel relates to the way Peg and Katy and I have been adjusting our relationship in advance of our departure. We three have always been extremely close, and the idea of not living within a few minutes car ride was the biggest impediment to our future plans. But we realized that in a day when communication is so much easier than even 10 years ago, that we would be able to overcome distance without losing intimacy.
The city has been the place to hang my hat. I’ve enjoyed living here — no doubt about that. I feel comfortable with the social climate here — I grew up in a city with a largely European heritage. It was a city in which old women swept their sidewalks every morning; where sausages were made — in fact I spent some of my college time working for one of the manufacturers: Uncle August. Now known as Klements sausage, they used to have a plant on the West side of the Milwaukee River near Locust, and I worked there for about a year to make my college spending money.
But the city has changed, and so has the pathos. Once, at the turn of the 20th Century, 75% of all business in Milwaukee was conducted in German. That’s no longer true. In some ways the city has stagnated over recent years. In other ways it seems to have regressed. Currently 42% of the population is caucasion –quite a change from what it was 112 yrs ago. The high school I attended was, at that time, one of the best in the city: today it is one of the worst. Compared to the rest of the state, Milwaukee is at a standstill.
But I’ve never paid much attention to the city. My hopes have always been about my faith and about doing what I can to share the Gospel of Jesus through my life. To do that I don’t need to live anywhere in particular. And our RV plans make that possible: to live anywhere.
This week has been an interesting week. Talking with Katy over the weekend helped me find my peace with the Real Estate situation; it seems I’m finding my peace with the rest of the transition. I suspect it won’t be long now till we have a clearer view of our immediate future. But if we don’t, I don’t think it will bother me as it has in the past.
I’m glad to have lived here; I’ll be glad to be gone. Contentment is not about being where you want to be, contentment is about being happy where you ARE.
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