Impressions of a Nome-ad

     This journey of mine has been winding down, and I have to admit, I'm a little sad.  I was not expecting to like Nome so much, honestly.  I think if you took my hometown of Sierra Madre, got it liquored up, replaced the mountain lions with polar bears, and put it on the Bering Sea, you'd have Nome.  Even some of the buildings look similar.
     I haven't had people say 'hi' to me on the street since I left Sierra Madre.  I've lived in places where you avoid eye contact, because some of the people you meet might be crazy and try to *gasp!* talk to you.  Here in Nome, I say bring on the crazy.  It makes life interesting.  From cheering the Giants in gay bars in Anchorage to drinking with Inuit elders on the beach in Nome, this has been probably my best research trip.  And going out of town into the country, this is a land of devastating beauty.  The land is punishing in its lyricism, both emotionally and physically.  I've seen the midnight sun before, and now the midday darkness.
     Sometimes in California, we hear that so-and-so "went crazy and moved to Alaska."  The idea of Alaska is always prefixed by the suggestion of insanity.  For Californians, it's both alluring and frightening, full of polar bears and shaggy mountain men and people who vote for Sarah Palin (for your information, I found out that Anchorage hates her guts, and people in Nome weren't too fond of her either).  I like Alaska.  Like all places, it has the good and the bad.  I know I'll be coming back, as soon as I get another opportunity.  And perhaps next time, I won't come back (I grew up in rattlesnake and mountain lion country; you can't scare me).  I hope it retains its wildness and inaccessibility; in California, roads have been the death of us and our beautiful country.
     The sad thing is that it might not last.  Arctic Alaska is at the front line of global warming.  Everything, the wildlife, the unique cultures that have grown here, will all be changed.  One of my former classmates in Maine, dg nanouk okpik, is originally from Barrow, and I think her poetry contains the most eloquent statements of the devastation about to occur, that is already occurring.  Her Alaska won't be there anymore, and honestly, that frightens me more than anything.
     Seeing Alaska from a cruise ship is like snapping a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and saying you've seen San Francisco.  Northern Alaska is expensive, but less so in the off-season, and Anchorage goods and services are about the same as San Francisco.  It's been more than worth it.
     Check out dg at NewPages Blog: dg nanouk okpik