Letter from the Editor - March 2008

Welcome to Another Day in Paradise.

Around here, we tend to shamelessly gush, exude, ooze optimism and positivity about our little piece of paradise. We go on and on, and really it’s not all pep talks and daily affirmations a la Stuart Smalley: I am smart enough, I am good enough, and gosh darnit people like me. Although let’s be honest, that’s a big chunk of it! Hmm, is it a promotional philosophy with a capital P, nothing more than confetti and glitter tossed out, as if in an Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo carnival parade, or is this a place that is truly special and fraught with potential? Some months I wonder. I imagine anyone who has taken a leap of faith, (moved to Mexico perhaps?), started a big daunting project or put their all into a creative endeavor, can relate. Zihuatanejo has its fair share of adventurers throwing caution to the wind, letting the sweeping bayscape and natural beauty inspire them into doing something big, something bold, something new.

World-weary cynicism or no, there is just something devilishly inspiring about crazy fools following their dreams...that I just can’t resist letting inspire me. Inspire me into one more month, one more year, one more earnest attempt, getting swept right along with them. You read about it in books, see it in movies (I’d say it’s a cultural obsession) and best of all, you catch it in the sparks flying from the eyes of your entrepreneur friends. I love to see that. “I want to start a revolution!” I had a friend tell me while waving his hands and rhapsodizing about his new business venture. If you can resist such affable enthusiasm, you are an older soul than me! He was talking about food, I am talking about earnest effusiveness, and why it can really pull you along… (Or, make you scowl and sneer—all depending on your own exact present location on your own personal learning curve.)

Me, I’m up here, sitting somewhere near the top of world, looking out over the beauty of Zihuatanejo bay spread out below me, shimmering under the moon, with the lights of town sparkling like gems off to my right, and I’m all of a sudden perfectly peaceful. And I’m wondering how anyone could ever take this for granted. Perhaps they need to climb the hill, see the view.

Until next time,