This

Why this sand,
     trucked in from town,
     rough grains mixed
     with soft, fragrant <muck>,
if the world is full
     of sterling, pristine beaches,
     soft, golden sand,
     stocked with seashells, lined with boardwalks?

Why this water,
     green, murky and alive
     with tiny algae that stick to my skin,
     that buoys me up
     with gentle fingers,
if beside each immaculate beach
     stretches a bottomless blue-green sea,
     glitteringly resplendent,
     abounding with prismatic life
     to be admired from glass-bottom boats and devoured with cold, frothy drinks?

Why this wood,
     these simple frames with screens-for-windows,
     creaky cots and rough-hewn benches,
     scratchy wool blankets and plastic sit-upons,
     and neatly-stacked logs and twigs,
     generously awaiting Breakfast Hikes and Council Fires,
if stucco and aluminum and stone
     are sturdier and sleeker,
     and all the shopping malls of the world
     runneth over:
     marble countertops, leather recliners, downy comforters,
     and flat screens that entice with an infinity of channels?

Why this friend,
     this hand-in-mine,
     this heart so very different and so very dear,
and not another who
     lives down the street, goes to my school,
     shares my interests, my heritage, my faith?

Because, here,
in this greenest and lovliest of spots,
hand-in-hand with these dearest of souls,

     I learned how to walk:
          head in the clouds, toes in that mucky sand,
          and how to work, and dream, and serve, even when it´s hard;
 
     I learned to how swim:
          to open my eyes into that gentle water,
          to see, and to feel, the greenness of life teeming all around me;
   
     I learned how to play:
          to create, to imagine-and-make-it-happen,
          to pull-out-all-the-stops and make something out of nothing;
   
     I learned to how to live:
          to sweat, to fail, to get back up again,
          and to never quit until we all get to the top of that hill;
   
     and I learned, especially, how to love:
          to listen, to give grace,
          to argue and to concede,
          to accept and to encourage,
          to show up and, sometimes, to shut up,
          to come to the end of a hard day
          and still sing together, hand-in-hand.

So, go ahead.

Offer me a luxury cruise,
a thousand flat-screened, air-conditioned suites,
a first-class ticket to anywhere -

I will gladly,
gratefully,
choose,
every time,
without hesitation,

this.