CHANGE

I wrote a post somewhere and lost it.  So, I'll try to re-construct the idea and embellish on it.

Did you ever wonder why groups of people stay where they are? 

Why don't shanty towns disappear? If you were born in a shanty town, you are most likely to live your whole life in a shanty town in spite of the fact that you could leave it for a richer life elsewhere. 

The same goes for those born in ghettos, deserts, or low lying coasts where many people die from storm surges and high tides every year..

I learned about this WHY from the experience my sister had.

Here's her story.........

My sister married a man she met through writing to a soldier during the Vietnam war.
He was from west Texas, she from Wisconsin.

He decided to move to Wisconsin to live with my sister and they both spent several years there.  However, he missed "home" and finally convinced my sister to move to West Texas with him.

In Wisconsin, we had trees, grass and enough rain to keep things green. West Texas is basically flat desert with cactus, mesquite, dry, dusty, and a horizon filled with pump jacks. It smells of oil and the drinking water is brackish.

But West Texas was home to my brother-in-law and he missed it. (My predilection is green, his is wide skies and brackish water.)  Now my sister misses the trees and green and sweet water.

I then realized that people feel more comfort living in areas where they were born and grew up.

Why is this so?

People like to stay in familiar surroundings because they know they can survive there. If they are taken out of their "survival" zone, i.e. to less familiar surroundings, they feel less secure. (Not said well, hmm.)

People fear the unfamiliar. Change is always scary, uncomfortable. Any change from their infant past will always cause discomfort. The same goes for any change from the usual in adult life.

Change for the better is always dreamed about, but only in the context of familiar surroundings.

Nuff said.