John Burroughs wrote:

"The lure of the distant and difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are."

I don't have a summary explanation of who John Burroughs is but a quick search brings up the fact that he was a naturalist with a great bushy beard. I have to find out about him now.

And I got the quote from a Hallmark card. That may trivialize it to some but it also brings the point home, doesn't it? How else would I have found it but in the here and now?

I have to admit I've spent much of my life waiting for the mother ship to arrive to give me a ride home. When it didn't seem to be coming anytime soon, I decided to go ahead and mate with one of the natives here and then the urge to reproduce superceeded any interstellar travel plans I had. Now that the offspring are able to care for themselves for the most part, I have all the time in the world to daydream about other worlds and utopias from the past but I found that I've lost my taste for that. I'm too interested in the host of little goldfinches dining on the bag of thistle hanging from my eave. And that huge dark blue sky south of the birds that looks like it's going to maybe cause flash flooding again. And Taj Mahal singing "Sweet Home Chicago" on my computer.

I might still accept a ride if the ship ever showed up, but then I might just tell them that I want to stick around and make this world a better place. We still haven't achieved world peace yet.