A Place Apart

The longer we stayed in Juneau, the more convinced I became that Alaska, or at least that part of it that Juneau represents, is a place apart.  True, people speak American English there and drive on the right side of the road, but Juneau seemed as strange as does Puerto Rico, American but not quite.  The state’s motto, The Last Frontier, which appears on its license plates, is an emblem of its apartness.

The scenery is unparalleled.  Juneau must be the most beautiful city in North America.  Snow-streaked, fir-clad mountains surround it and some come down to the streets of the city.  The air is pure.  The streets are clean.  Civility is high.  Motorists stop before you even put your foot onto a crosswalk.   When we were there in late June and early July, the sky was not dark until about eleven at night and by three in the morning it began to lighten.  

People smile at you.  From the conversations we’ve had with those who live there, the city’s residents are genuinely glad that Juneau is their home.  Unemployment is so low in Juneau that college students have no difficulty finding summer jobs.  Still, no place is perfect.  Each has its disadvantages.  But for the first-time visitor, Juneau’s disadvantages require a large magnifying glass to discover.

Well, I’m exaggerating, of course.   It would be hard for a scholar to work there without the resources of a first-class library and aside from Native American productions, there is little for aficionados of art.  And I imagine that drama and music enthusiasts might pine for the theaters and concert halls of a metropolitan center.  And then there's the weather.  The rain forest in which Juneau stands wraps it in what seems like a perpetual mist - during our two-week stay, we saw the sun but three times - and in winter the sun sets in mid-afternoon.  Shoveling snow for an hour before you go to work and for another hour when you return soon loses its charm.  Still, Juneau is so beautiful, so close to nature, that staying there restores the soul. 

Yes, Juneau is strange but wonderful.  It reminds me of old age, that stage of development that is similar in some ways to our previous lives, but radically different in others.  Like Juneau, old age is a place apart.  But that’s a topic for another post.