I could keep working as a freelance journalist and maybe get a book out of the experience. She could finish her library science degree online. The city had been grinding us up, and decimating our bank accounts, and we were both ready to live closer to the land.
It was a difficult decision to explain to New Yorkers. They viewed Mississippi as a backwater, at best, and more commonly as a byword for ignorance and bigotry. One woman accused me of being a racist for wanting to live there, even though I was moving to a county that was 82 percent African-American. Most people were genuinely mystified, or doubtful about my sanity, because who in their right mind would choose to live in backwoods Mississippi?