Back from San Diego, and un-jetlagged. Still haven't figured out how to get pictures uploaded onto the site....argh.

Anyway, I'm trying to appreciate Maryland's unique beauty the way I appreciated the unique beauty of San Diego. It's really hard to compare a place with year round beautiful weather to, well, here. Sometimes I think this area has some of the worst weather I've ever encountered....but New England was really no picnic either. In contrast to the "Endless Summer" of Southern California it seemed like New England was The Land of Endless Winter...

I used to sign my e-mails that way. Indeed, there's a frost warning for the area where we used to live.

Still, not only was the weather more pleasant out there, so were most people. And it wasn't that we were just staying in the tourist district among people who make their living being nice. That was one of the best things about the place where we stayed: it was in a neighborhood, albeit a nice one. We had breakfast at the same bakery/cafe every morning where people on their way to work mingled with early shifters on coffee breaks and Moms stopping on their morning walk with the kids. There was a bowl of water set out front for any random dogs who might happen by and need a drink. We didn't talk to any dogs, but lots of people talked to us, saying "good morning" and twice a I heard mothers reminding kids to do things like hold the door for the next person saying "remember your manners."

I have to say that I have NEVER heard anybody on the east coast, except my brother and sister-in-law, to tell their kids to remember their manners. We tend to think of "the left coast" as being the center of the "all about me" mentality, but I didn't find it that way at all.

Still people seemed much less uptight, less rushed, less freaked out (especially on the roads) than they do around here. The Hub and I discussed possible reasons for the difference throughout the whole trip. Was it a different cultural heritage? Higher level of education? Lower percentage of people suffering from the irritability of Seasonal Affective Disorder? Higher percentage of people who were stoned? (Well, maybe in Ocean Beach)

But I think I might have finally come up with the answer. As soon as we got back home, I suddenly noticed signs of fall everywhere. Not just the natural ones, such as crops ripening, but people decorating their homes for harvest or Halloween. Out there, there was no sign that it really wasn't an "endless summer".

Somebody once did a study with seminary students in which they found that the single biggest predictor of how likely someone was to help another person had to do with how much of a hurry the subject was in. They had two groups of seminarians in the study. The first group heard a talk on the value of helping others and then was released to go to a leisurely lunch served close by. The second got the same talk but were told that they had only a few minutes to make it to the next activity on the other side of the college campus. Volunteers pretending to be homeless asked members of each group for help at various points along the way to the next activity.

A much higher percentage of the seminarians who felt that they had time to spare gave help to the homeless. Some of the hurried group actually stepped OVER the "homeless" in their rush to get their next speech, having JUST heard a talk on the virtue of service!

I think here on the east coast where we have so many natural reminders of "time flying" we start to feel that we're always in a hurry.I mean overall, as a group.

That's my theory. Though what gets the parrot in such a bad mood at times, I have no idea.