Case of the Nutty Blond

I said it in my last post and I’ll say it again: this is an amazing world we live in. So many places to visit, and things to do. It is easy to feel out of place when one travels though, even if it stays within one’s own country that is as big as ours. At the moment, I am writing you from Truro, Massachusetts, as I am here working for a month at my uncle’s art gallery in nearby Provincetown, which sits at the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula that curls out into the Atlantic Ocean. It is worlds apart from the Wyoming that I love, and never more I have I felt like the stranger in a strange land that God says that we Christians are not matter where we go in this world. I have learned a lot about God and this part of His creation as well as getting to know the Eastern Yanks that help make up these United States. This trip has also given new meaning to the phrase “as far as the East is from the West.” There are things here at this end of the continent that are so different from my in-land desert. The ocean, for instance, which means that there is moisture in the air as well as oxygen. And then there is this color green on these things called trees, which grow thick and almost right up to the shore-line. It is not oppressively hot or humid, like the south, and the sea air is wonderful on my skin and hair; I was able to get out of the shower and not have to apply lotion at all! I have never been able to do that before! Also, no one gets shot over water rights because no one cares about water rights and no one can carry a gun! The people are different, of course, with their eastern dialects and pocketbooks, not purses, and drink soda, not pop. But they do make “wicked good” coffee!!

Provincetown goes by many names out here: we mostly refer to it as Ptown (read P-town) although some call it Cape-Tip, Cape’s End, Land’s End, Our Town, and Queersville (hang on, I will elaborate on that in a minute). The people are no more oppressive than the weather, but know how to deal with the close proximity of each other better than we seem to be able to out west, where even though we are behind you, we are a distance back there—we like our space. This close, openness makes for a great artistic setting, and everyone has one interest or another in the pursuit of the arts. Galleries of all sorts are everywhere. I am working at The OZ Gallery for my uncle Mike and his girlfriend, Rosemary (who, I want the world to know, are wonderful to let me do this and stay with them!). The OZ Gallery is tucked away in this delightful little courtyard off of Commercial St, the only main street in Ptwon. I could talk for hours about Mike and Rosemary’s work, but instead I will recommend that you follow these links and see for yourself! www.ozgalleryptown.com and www.michaelbwilsonstudio.com

And yes, there is the homosexual community here in Ptown. For the most part, it is a tolerant artistic community, like I said, although we did make the news not for discrimination against gays, but against straights. Police Chief Ted Meyer told the Cape Cod Times that while ''[w]e don't have hate crimes, but we do have hate and nasty comments,'' with heterosexuals being called names like “bigot” and “breeders.” I had a lady that is staying with us for a few days asked me if my religion had anything to say about that and what I personally thought of it. Yes, of course God has something to say about homosexual sex, I told her, just like He has something to say about heterosexual sex, money, lying, or coveting. The problem with homosexual sex is that it lies so close to the person that God loves. Say that you are condemning the act, and it can so easily be thought of as condemning the person. God is wholly holy just as he is wholly merciful and sin is sin. I deserve death and separation from God for my gossiping just as much as the homosexual; no more no less. And Jesus died for those people just as much as He died for me; no more no less.

Provincetown has long been known for its gay community, but it has been known even longer as the quintessential small American town, with ups and downs in the economy, class struggle, search for identity, and making its mark in the modern world. The history of Ptown is pretty much a “history of the United States in little,” according to Karen Christel Krahulik, who wrote the book Provincetown. Thus, it would be impossible to give you, my dear and loyal readers, a complete history but I shall give you the highlights. Provincetown was settled as a sea-side fishing and whaling community in the 1600s and was declared an official township in 1727. Later, when whaling lost the market to the discovery of petroleum, Ptown had a bit of a problem deciding where it would take its next step; other whaling communities turned to industry, others to tourism. Provincetown did have a railroad built to help transport people to the goods inland quicker, which helped the economy for a time, but ultimately found more profit in tourism. The Mayflower that carried the first pilgrims to this continent actually stopped here at the bay before moving on to Plymouth. In 1907 work began on Pilgrim Monument that would lord over Ptown (see picture) and set the record straight Plymouth was not the first stop for the pilgrims and President Theodore Roosevelt witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony. In 1910, President Taft witnessed the grand opening. Provincetown also found a new help in the artists that came in 1899, and have made this their hub ever since. In the 1920s and 1930s the first of the sexually liberated came and also made their mark. Ultimately, however, it is immigrants that have kept the Provincetown economy alive, and it is easy to meet people who come from all over as you walk Commercial St. While Ptown is mostly comfortable with Ptown, some worry that if it tries to exploit its colonial or whaling heritage, or its homosexual tolerance, that it will loose its genuineness as a town and become merely “Provincetown Land.” It’s an issue that is not new to most towns I think; I know that the towns in Wyoming have the same crisis. Time will only tell, and until then I will continue to enjoy the beaches, clam chowder and lobster!!