When you live in a unique place like Moose Lodge in the southwest corner of Missouri, the biggest single challenge is keeping world events in perspective along with a pulse on what's happening within my profession. Every location has its bias and influences. If I were in the heart of Silicon Valley, I'd be thinking from their point of view, which isn't any more accurate than Rogersville, Missouri, or Kirkland, Washington, or Newport Beach, California. That's what makes it so tricky and, in a way, enlightening.

This is where living in a remote place offers me some clarity. It forces me to look outside of an old standby, which was to just meet with locals and only locals with no awareness of anything outside of the Seattle area. I didn't realize at the time how that narrowed my point of view. Just driving from Kirkland to downtown Seattle would result in my getting stuck in hours of traffic with others who were experiencing the same frustration. About the only thing you can do is make phone calls or listen to whatever media was available.

This is a whole different discipline, and unless you're working at it, it's easy to let your mind take you towards faulty conclusions about a range of topics. I spend far more hours pulling media threads that were otherwise absorbed by my daily commute or the daily interactions of everyone in close proximity to me. I think of the constant interruptions, and it was regarded as normal.

Here, it's possible to have hours of uninterrupted productivity, something that was impossible in Kirkland. There were just too many outside factors: planes flying over, neighbors making noise or needing help with something. This is different. Very different. It's what I wondered about when I lived in Kirkland. I thought about what it would be like to have a long stream of concentration powers in a rural setting, and I've not been at all disappointed by the reality of rural life.

People are often very critical of rural living and think people who live in locations such as this are somehow out of touch. This is "fly-over country," and they believe we couldn't possibly be informed. I'd challenge that completely. I think I'm more informed from a far broader spectrum than I ever was living in Kirkland, Washington. I get a lot more input as I work, and I get it from a lot more sources rather than just local ones.

The other thing that sets the Midwest apart is that people talk here. They are nowhere near as closed off, and people are far from reserved. If they don't like you, you're probably going to hear it here. If they have a racist point of view, they certainly don't hide it, but it's not as common as I was anticipating. People here are far more likely to have a normal conversation than the polarized single opinion on the coasts.

I wish everyone had a crack at this lifestyle. As much as it may seem isolating on the outside, it's not that at all. I love it!