Escape From Paradise

Hugh Conner, British foreign service officer, finds himself crashed in the forbidding Himalayas, rescued, and taken to a lamasery. There, he finds his true vocation and wants to stay, however, his good friend wants to return to the world he knew and cannot do it without help. Conner agrees to leave with him, but once outside, finds that his only desire is to return to the Valley of the Blue Moon and its lamasery, Shangri La.

Many of you may recognize the above as a summary of James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon. I thought about it this morning while reading a news story that 31 more Cuban exiles had arrived on U.S. soil near Turkey Point on Biscayne Bay. Most likely, the 28 adults and three children were transported by a smuggler at great cost to themselves - and Florida friends and relatives - and at high risk as well. The "dry foot rule" means they must be on our soil physically in order to stay. Being on a boat thirty feet from land means they are returned to Cuba. I cannot imagine the sorrow that situation would create.

Many leftists would tell us that, in spite of some difficulties, the 50 year old communist regime that these exiles left behind in Cuba was a paradise. The evidence readily available on any number of web sites would tell us otherwise, yet there seems to be a growing movement on our shores to reestablish closer official contact with this brutal dictatorship. True, the Cuban people no longer struggle under capitalism. Instead, they struggle to sustain a tiny wealthy ruling group and a much larger and far poorer population in a perpetual tension of the common denominator. No up. No down. Simply the pursuit of an equality of prosperity. What then motivates 28 adults, many of them too young to have known their country before communism, to risk all in an attempt to leave such a place? Family or friendship may be in play, but I would say they leave also to pursue freedom and actualization. The U.S. is their Valley of the Blue Moon. We are, after all, a nation of Hugh Conners. In our search for actualization in a free environment, sometimes we may chose loyalty and friendship over the security of Shangri La thinking that we can return at will. One must be careful, for the simple act of choice guarantees that there is no guarantee.

Did Conner return to his paradise? You need to read the book. I think our 31 Cubans have found theirs. Where will their choice for freedom and actualization take them? Anywhere they want. I wish them well. And I pray for swift liberation for those they left behind.

Thanks to Babalu for kindling these thoughts.