Paradise becoming household word

(Paradise Divide) Once a term that huddled up with utopia, heaven, bliss, nirvana, Zion and Shangri-la paradise has become the catchword for a vast assortment of locales all over the globe. It’s become a testimony for the unimaginative who somehow think their paradise is the real paradise and that the others are pretenders to the throne.

The other day I received an e-mail from a woman on Little Corn Island in Nicaragua. She thanked me for my query saying that my letter had arrived in two weeks from the U.S.. Then she said “Things move slow here in paradise. What? Which paradise? I wrote her back that I too lived in paradise, only mine was 8000 feet and not on the beach. She didn’t seem to get it. Has she only visited one paradise in her life? How limited. I won’t stay at her hotel.

Then there was the pension in Grenada (Nicaragua) called Another Night in Paradise. How clever. I won’t stay there even one night, even if they have ice. Too bad. Here we have a minimum of undeveloped spots in the world and some clown has to call them paradise. What do you think that will do? It will bring more people in search of their own personal heaven and wreck the place in a matter of months.

Realtors love to use the word paradise when promoting the sale of land. They have jacked up paradise to where it means nothing. Maybe that’s why they’re always posing in their ads with face lifts and with Golden Retrievers, ya think?

There are paradise beaches, passes, plateaus, peaks, rivers, lakes, tributaries, canals, malls, valleys, meadows, freeways, tours, ski areas, motors, acres, coiffures, temples, tattoo parlors, car lots, restaurants, bars, skating rinks, plazas, rest homes, trailer parks, kennels, counseling centers, liquor stores and botanical gardens. And that’s just the beginning of the roster.

Every state in this country has at least one town named Paradise. There’s Paradise, New York; Paradise, Illinois; Paradise, Florida and Paradise Texas to start with. I have been to all of these and I cannot detect even a subtle hint of paradise, unless it’s the high-tech car wash in Florida or the pork ribs in Texas.

Not to beleaguer the point: Maybe it’s time for the idle rich in Crested Butte to belly up to the wine bar and formulate a new concept in reference to the town and region. How about Elysium or Lubberland. Both words are in the dictionary and so far as I can tell there is not so much as one Elysium, New York or Lubberland, Illinois.

In closing, the word paradise appears in the dictionary right between paradigm and paradox. What more do we need to proceed? Does one have to walk into walls to prove they are there? Would a two by four do the job? – Rocky Flats