Nov 5: East of the Sun

Directions are a big deal in South Florida. This is a reality that few people stop to think about, I suspect. Until they travel east far enough that the reality is in front of them. Yep, suddenly there's a big wide Atlantic Ocean staring you in the face. Or make a U-turn and keep going ... then see what happens. Boom. After about two hours of driving west, there you are again, sitting at the edge of another expanse of salt water. I mention all this only because I was thinking yesterday about how directions are important to life in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area. It's always nice to know if you're moving east or west, north or south, of course. Doesn't matter where you live. But it's different here somehow.

I remember when I first moved to South Florida 20 years ago from Vermont. For some reason, I was constantly turning the wrong direction - and I've talked to other transplants who went through the same problem at first. When I wanted to go north, I inevitably guessed wrong and turned south. Same thing with east and west at night, when I had no sun to guide me and no compass in my car. I'm still not totally sure why.

But as I said, you usually can't go too far here without finding out about your mistake. "Wow, how did I get back to the beach ... again?!!" This is why GPS or maps are good things for tourists. You can find your way around Greater Fort Lauderdale very easily, really, but GPS saves you from those wrong turns. It's not just driving that makes directions so important here, though. It's the weather too, the sun and the wind. They force us to consider which way we're facing. We build our homes so that big picture windows don't have southern exposures that allow Florida's intense sunshine indoors all day long. Smart homeowners also install windows on the east and west sides to bring in crosswinds that blow through the rooms in cooler months. A light breeze shimmering from the east off the sea at night is something we'll seek out in the summer. Later in the year, we'll look for those winds to shift out of the north to bring us our first fresh, brisk air of the winter season. In South Florida, the direction of wind and sun matter more than in other places I've lived. I guess that's because we're closer to them here, in a sense. The hot sunlight and the cooling breezes and the ocean connect us with nature throughout our day. And maybe in our Facebooked, Twitterized world, that's not such a bad thing.