Simple Expectations

Had to leave the Bella Coola Valley this week and head for some of our more busy prosperous cities to the south.  It's always good to get out for a few days to check your perspective.  One of the things that always strikes me is the difference in expectations between small rural areas like the Bella Coola Valley and bigger places.  You get a flavour for it when you pick up a local paper, listen to the local radio station or just listen to the local talk in stores and restaurants.  The striking thing is the difference between what people in rural and isolated places see as normal vs what is normal in urban centers.  I'm talking about the average size of new houses, paved, street lit sidewalks and streets and the services - wow the services and hours are incredible!    There's not much talk about septic tank problems, water well problems and what day is the garbage dump open so we can take our own garbage to the dump. It's all just taken care of down here.   In small towns and in rural areas you spend a lot more time dealing with basics - and for us it's the norm as well.  Sure we debate about it would nice to have more facilities for sports, better shopping, bigger this and that, but what we really appreciate most in Bella Coola is having  good health care facilities, a pretty good airport and pretty reliable air services in an emergency.  We depend on the urban centers for a lot of things (especially the health care experts and service industry that fixes and makes things for us) and I'm really glad a lot of people seem to be thriving in this environment.  Back in the Bella Coola Valley, the lack of traffic, clean air, total dead quiet at night, scenery, wildlife, no lineups and lots of other things are just simple expectations.  Grizzly