I'll take Ambassadorship

One time, many years ago, before finding Sowal, I was behind a woman on line at a deli in LBI, N.J. She sighed incessantly about the wait time and how she needed to get back to work. She went on to tell another patron that this was why she moved over the Causeway, and off the island, that all these tourists just made her life so miserable, especially during peak season. I mean didn't we know that this was her Island, and that we were all just a nuisance, like biting flies blowing in from the north?

All I could think of was that she could have moved to the moon and probably would have complained about lack of societal amenities there too.

She finally got her sandwich or salad, I'm not really sure, because I didn't care. I just wanted her ugliness to be absent from my pleasant weekend stay. It was off season, too cold to swim, but a beautiful weekend.

I didn't know that she worked for a real estate company initially. It wasn't until after we got our lunch, and we went to the real estate office to meet an agent, who was going to show us a house for sale, that I saw her at the copier. Suddenly, I felt a sudden rush of anger about her condescension.
We'd vacationed at LBI for 20+ years, often renting the same house, and I felt very much like it was my little stretch of beach that I was a steward of for that one or two weeks. I knew the name of the owner of Hands Department store, looked forward to getting blueberry pie to take home freshly made from the market open only during season. That this was just as much my Island as it was hers.

We followed the agent to a home we were interested in, and the agent could have told me the house was free, and I wouldn't have heard him. All I could think about was the irony of finding this woman working in real estate. The agent noticed my apathy and asked me what I was thinking. Should I tell him what transpired earlier? Afterall, he was one of the principles of the firm. Shouldn't he be made aware that one of his employees was spewing negativism about the very people who line his pockets?
I then thought, maybe this woman is a single mother with a family to feed, or what was her story? Certainly could I have been putting her job at jeopardy if I was forward about our encounter? Why should I care?

It occurred to me that I did care and I wouldn't tell him about it. Chances are he knew already.
That we would thank him for his time and move on with another agency.

The whole incident made me think about how I would react, if and when, I bought a house in an area that was so loved by so many, that it became home for year round residents, even in the Winter now. Would I become a "local", possibly an angry one, or will I become a "local ambassador"? There is a big difference. Because no matter where you live for any length of time, you are only an ambassador of the land and the space you occupy.

I choose Ambassador. If you become lucky enough to live in a chosen place, a place that many others cherish as much as you, you have a responsibility to represent it well to the best of your abilities.

I'll take Ambassadorship any day.

Besides, it sounds important.