I know people think these islands are paradise; they certainy are pretty, never cold, and mostly thinly developed and lightly populated. The everlasting humidity can get you down, ditto the isolation, and the heat and rain of summer are wearing, too. So ... they're nice but not paradise.
In the shower this a.m. I had a whimsical thought and here it is. If heaven exists, it has a lot in common with Switzerland. It is beautiful, mountainous, orderly, functional, lightly populated and does not tolerate slovenliness in all its manifold forms. It forms no tangling foreign alliances, defends its own territory with steely vigilance, and is organized for the benefit of the law-abiding at the expense of scofflaws. Oh, and everything works as intended.
So why isn't Switzerland paradise? Too much snow and cold for my taste. I have the California native's notion that snow is something to visit, not something around which to live. Lovely as a novelty, it's ugly as an environment. Also a CA native is unaccustomed to humidity and, given a choice, avoids it. I've lived in humidity for a total of 4 years, and traveled in it perhaps another 2 years - that's enough.
