So what is it about NJ?

It started when I visited New Jersey to to see some cousins. I grew up in the boondocks of New York, where life was simpler and a lot less pressured. As I met people from the greater New York City area I noticed that they acted very differently from the people I knew. There was an energy and a straightforwardness that was missing from upstate people. On the other hand, there was a rudeness and lack of the courtesy that I expected people to show. In New Jersey people seemed more worldly and a bit obnoxious to me. At the same time they were far more wealthy than people I knew (or at least they were in the place I was visiting). Being in New Jersey felt strange and unnatural.

Later on, while I was life-guarding to earn money for college, I met a girl from the bedroom communities outside Philadelphia. When I went to visit her I noticed the (to me) unnatural way in which communities were arranged, and the complete lack of mature trees in new communities. She was hot, so I visited a lot, hugging saplings for a tree fix while I was there. I swore at the time that I would never live in New Jersey.

As we left graduate school, E got the first job, and it was in New Jersey. I found myself living amongst the people that were strange to me and in the place that was unnatural to me. As I found my way professionally, I began to notice the blame society surrounding me. People seemed obsessed with results (perhaps righteously), rather than with the processes that bring results. It was as if they thought the process of getting results was automatic and always successful. I was a firm believer in process, developed scientifically and backed by experimentation. That did not play well in either work or day to day living. I began to call New Jersey the "me first" state. I am told that maybe my observations of greater NYC are not accurate. I believe what I see now:

• Incapable people running companies without a clue how they should work
• Drivers insisting on their position in the left lane and unsafely changing lanes to get ahead
• Greed driving financial markets to unsupportable bubbles,spreading chaos through the US
• Inability and unwillingness to face risk in a sane way
• Expectations that government must "take care of us"
• Pushiness, obnoxiousness, unreasonable expectations
• Incredibly high taxes
• Corruption in government

Make no mistake, I know that good people live here. I just think the general tenor and direction of life is not right. Why should you give a shit? Well, you probably will not. In spite of that, there is leadership and direction that flows from centers of power and money to other less powerful places. The quality of life that originates here seems to flow unnaturally toward places that I love, and maybe to places you love, too.

So, now that E and I are retired, I will be leaving as quickly as I can arrange it. We'll sell out, kiss corruption and high taxes goodbye, and haul ass for someplace sane. I think some of the others I know have the same idea. There are some less spoiled places left! Jamaica is one. The people and the lifestyle are terrific. We could do much worse.