But I didn't like when others did so...

I’ve been reading House: A Memoir, by Michael Ruhlman, and really enjoying it. Who would have thought you could make a chapter on pre-purchase home inspection a gripping read?

The book, in addition to being a blow-by-blow account of the purchase and renovation of an old Cleveland home, is also a paean to Cleveland itself.

Ruhlman writes, while walking over the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, for example:

I loved traversing this bridge for this view of the city and its terrain, a city beside a river basic. And I loved Cleveland unabashedly, but like most here I have a bipolar relationship with it. I could adore it and denigrate it in the same breath, often for the same reasons. But I didn’t like when others did so.

Could the same thing not be said about Prince Edward Islanders?

Indeed, not understanding this very fact is likely a primary reason why new Islanders are so often chewed up and spat out: unless you can find the right tone at the right time – and “the right time” involves a 10 to 15 year long quiet period – it’s usually best to say nothing critical about the Island lest your opinions be taken not as the loving self-criticism of one who belongs but rather as a holier-than-thou pronouncement from one who doesn’t.