There is a town, a village really, in the mountains to the east.  It is a secluded place nestled in a valley which runs east to west. There are legends that say this layout carried certain connotations for the first peoples in the area, so they would not settle there. But they certainly passed through, and as these people did not have a fixed location in which they lived year round, as we do now, it was as much their home as it could be.

The shape of the valley is such that it receives a great abundance of sunshine. Many years ago a group of refugees noticed this, and as they were looking for a place to live, and relied on the sun and the earth to cultivate crops for their livelihood, they decided to settle in the valley. This was after the first peoples had been forced to cease their traditional way of life, and did not pass through the valley anymore. And though the refugees, who had travelled halfway across the world just to be left alone, had a fixed concept of home similar to ours, their differences were enough to attract the attention of the authorities. This was mostly due to their language. The government’s idea of home was such that everyone who lived in the area which they decided was under their control had to speak the same language, and to adopt other cultural norms. But the refugees, who had already undergone great hardship at the hands of many governments, refused to abandon their language. And so a sort of battle began, one that was never really resolved, and was often fought in secret. But that is another story.

The refugees grew apples, raspberries, potatoes, and just about any fruit and vegetable you can think of. They built a factory to turn the fruit into jam and sell for a profit. They ran a cooperative where they sold their produce to the public. They even built a brick factory to make the material with which they built the houses in which they lived – large buildings which were home to several families. They also built their own schools out of these bricks, so that they did not have to send their children to government schools and lose their language. And though the government tried to destroy the refugee’s independence and strength, much of the philosophy and culture survived for generations, and even exists to this day. They still call the valley their home.

Long after the valley was settled by the community of refugees, a war broke out in a far off country. It was waged by a government which did not have the support of the young people who were supposed to be the ones fighting the war. The government adopted policies which forced young people to fight in the war, or be sent to jail. Rather than fight or be imprisoned, many young people fled north, some of them to the very same valley which I have been telling you about. Here they would not have to fight or be imprisoned, but could live in peace. The policies of the government which controlled this valley had loosened over time. Like the refugees who lived in this valley already, the young people just wanted to be left alone. They, too, made use of the valley’s extraordinary sunshine. But rather than growing fruits and vegetables, they grew special strains of a plant which has many uses. This plant could be used to make rope and many other useful things. It could also be smoked or eaten to alter an individual’s perception of themselves and their surroundings. This plant had to be grown and sold without the interference of the government, so an underground economy was created, and the valley became famous for its illegal export.

And so the people who called this valley home probably had a different understanding of what home meant than most of us do. For them, home simply meant a place where they could be left alone, where no one was going to impose rules or stipulations on them to which they were strongly opposed. Home was a place of peace, cooperation, and understanding. And many people who were born and raised in this valley grew up with this understanding of home, and though many left to see the world and to enrich their understanding of life in general, they carried this particular understanding with them. Wherever they went, as long as they held peace in their hearts, they were home.

Works Cited:

“Bob Erb 4 Herb Legalize It! Brian Taylor (Grand Forks) sings a marijuana song” YouTube. 13 Sept 2013. Web. 1 Feb, 2014.

Fructova School. 1912. Boundary Museum, Grand Forks, BC. Web. 1 Feb 2014.
“Jesse LeBourdais – I Go By The Sound” YouTube. YouTube, 3 July 2010. Web. 1 Feb, 2014