I’ve always noticed have’s and have not’s. Maybe it goes back to me watching the movie Dr. Zhivago and the scene where Lara stands outside the restaurant window, starving, while inside the royalty wine and dine, although that might be a Mandela effect event where I’m misremembering something. Still, it’s there in my head and so are the two types of people. I saw it last week as I wandered around Marathon.

The hotel where a lot of the musical events are held is a truly lovely place, and often hosts weddings where people pay a great deal of money to wine, dine and house their guests, hundreds of miles from any major population center. The houses where we stay are beautifully redone by people who don’t live in them so that people like me, who don’t live there, have a nice place to stay when we come to listen to music at the fancy hotel and it’s gardens. Meanwhile, all around town are hand-to-mouth homes, trailers, double-wides, hard homes, close to the ground homes, surrounded by lots of shuttered businesses.

Of course, I have no idea what all this means. I just saw it and thought about it and it made me wonder if the locals are happy to see me. I know Europe is having second thoughts about tourists and the vacation rental businesses that snap up local properties to rent them to tourists. Property values and all that. Of course, we live in a truly global economy and you can complain about the rising tide, but it’s going to come. Still, I wonder about those less fortunate than me and how they’re making out, and does my coming to town help any at all.