My husband and I spent 3 days in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a rather spur of the moment, absolutely necessary escape from reality. Work has been stressful for both of us of late, and we are exhausted more often than not in the evenings. So on Wednesday I booked a wonderful inn for Friday and Saturday nights. We headed down the Cape around noon on Friday.
If you have never been to Provincetown, I must tell you, it is a delight! It first became famous a hundred years ago as an artists' colony. In the last quarter century, it is also a haven for gays and lesbians. You are as likely to see same sex couples walking hand-in-hand or arm-in-arm as a male/female couple, and it is totally relaxed. It makes you wonder why some people make such a big deal about the issue. Gee, how can you hate people for loving each other?
But aside from that, it is a wonderful place to vacation. It is at the very end of the arm called Cape Cod, and about 2 hours from the bridge connecting the Cape to the mainland. There are no malls, no freeways, not really even any supermarkets. There are small shops of every kind imaginable: gifts, jewelry, candy stores, art galleries (some phenomenal), tourist junk stores, the ever-popular t-shirt stores, resort wear boutiques, toy and puzzle shops, and I even saw a witchcraft supply store. Oh, and leather shops, as well as those that sell the "toys" that are popular with the more eccentric residents. One store had a mannequin in the window dressed in leather straps and chains, he was holding a whip.
There are clubs for men, for women, for "queens", and there are "leather bars". And many for us "regular" folks.
There are wonderful restaurants, all casual, where you can get the best fried clams in the world. And while you're eating, you can look out at the sandy beaches, the fishing boats, the endless Atlantic Ocean.
I may be a radical at heart, but I am in appearance a glaringly ordinary middle-aged housewife. But I felt remarkably at home in P-town. I was in awe at times ny how ordinary it all seems (at dinner a gentleman was seated next to my husband who could quite accurately be called a "princess", and yet we were at ease, as was he).
It's a funny place. Totally "out there" if you will, but free. There are, apparently, no prejudices against anyone. Including chubby, middle-aged broads walking with handsome grey-haired gentlemen.
There is no pretense, no need to try to fit.
It really got me thinking. This is what our country could be like if people would stop comparing themselves to others. If they did not dislike, or distrust, anyone, based on some trait or characteristic that has nothing to do with character. If a gay couple could live next to a Chinese immigrant, who lived next to a transvestite, who lived next to a Mormon, who hung out with a Christian, and they all shopped at the Jewish deli and the Asian market. We could have teachers who were Philippinos, and doctors who were midgets, and maybe a minister who was a Martian.
And no one would care!
Sounds kind of like "liberty and justice for all", hmmm?
