“Paradise” has a lot of problems. Most of them being the dependence of a lot of people wanting to visit “paradise” and spending a lot of money while they do so. This is particularly difficult as most “paradise” is situated in violent weather territories, and one good storm can ruin an entire year’s economy.

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

I loved and appreciated every minute of it, and I sorely wish I could move back. When I first moved to Santa Barbara in the 1960’s, from Denver I hate snow it was a beautiful little piece of Paradise. Gradually more and more condos were built, and they started tearing down all the stately, old mansions and replacing them with apartment buildings, but the beaches and parks never lost their charm.

Although I’ve never lived there, I’ve been to Paradise once or twice. Nothing exciting.

Well, I lived in Florida for about 14 years, moved there after college, and I never took it for granted. Sunny blue skies, palm trees, warm air, I felt like I was on vacation every day. Even people I know who were born in tropical climates, most of them are happy to live there, and can’t understand why people would want to live in cold weather. It probably depends on the exact location of this island, and what is available on the island. Living in a place that you consider a vacation spot changes your life. It made me immensely happy.

I live in Orange County, CA. It is definitely paradise. The beaches are gorgeous and the weather is always good.

It never gets old.

@JLeslie Paradise can go both ways, some people love to live in a winter wonderland with lots of snow, powered trees of white, but to actually have to deal with shoveling snow all the time would ruin the lure of the winter wonderland.

I am not a tropical type…I am a mountain girl!

I have enjoyed some tropical moments but…I consider where I Iive to be paradise.

I understand the question and identify with it completely. I have lived in several, and visited many countries and sometimes still feel a bit nomadic. Some of the places I’ve lived, but especially the current one, could be considered by many as a kind of Paradise. Do I appreciate it? Sometimes I do, but probably not often enough. The grass is always greener…?

Note to self: try to appreciate what you have, and not wait until it’s proverbially gone.

@Hypocrisy_Central True. I was going by your example in your question. People who live in the snow, who love winter sports, and the cold weather, I think they never take it for granted either. I think if someone recognizes they love where they live, they know it, they never forget it, they feel grateful for their life there.

@JLeslie People who live where they live be it seen as a papardise or not I am sure love or like very much they live there but do they appriciate it as a papadise since they live in it 24/7 and not just visit there once or twice a year?

Probably not till you go visit the slums. Then you’ll know the difference.

@Hypocrisy_Central I think so. I guess I mean if they once considered it a paradise I think they always do, even if it is 24/7. If they never considered it a paradise then no.

I suppose I would know it’s paradise if I had lived in other places beforehand to make the comparison with.

If I’d never seen a TV, magazine or taken trips away, if I’d never read a book about other places and if no one in my paradise went sick, hurt or hungry then no, I wouldn’t think it was special. If I moved to such a place now then yeah, I’d feel it was as close to paradise as I’ve imagined.

Well…the solution is to be a gazillionaire and have multiple residences..hmmm, lets see…

I’d have a tree house in Costa Rica, an apartment in Taipei or elsewhere in asia across the street from a dumpling cafe, a beach cottage, but….I’d always come back to the Sierras!

@Neizvestnaya If all your life you lived in the Cook Islands, Tahiti, etc and even though you may have seen other places by way of magazines, books, Internet etc, do you think you would see your island home as the “paradise” because of the white sandy beaches, warm weather, awesome sunsets, crystal clear water teaming with colorful fish as all those foreigners sailing and flying in think it is? It all that was stuff you see everyday and it was just your ordinary beach and palms you seen since you learned to walk and swim as a toddler because others said it was special do you think you would start to see it as that special also?

@Hypocrisy_Central
I would think it’s special just as I think my “home” was special and my dad’s home in Kaui was special but I’m not sure about paradise, that’s a thing I might be confusing with utopia. Honestly though, I don’t think often about what paradise is because my plate is pretty damn full with a reality that gives me the biggest challenge of my life ever. Sorry to be a pooper.

@Neizvestnaya I guess people have their ideal of paradise vs utopia, to me utopia transcends the physical. Where as when people speak of an “island paradise” they allude to the location and its physical characteristics, how beautiful it is with the swaying palms and white sandy beaches etc. I guess because it is a far cray from the urban juncle they are vacationing from. Those who live there seeit every day, it would be like if you had fireworks every night after a while would you stop everything you were doing to look like you did when it 1st started happening? Like that, what do you think?

Paradise is a relative term. People living under the Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution were told (and many believed) that they were living in paradise. Children were told that they should clean their plates and think of all the starving children in capitalist countries.