Ideas on place
A global sense of place - Doreen Massey
What does place mean to me? I have the story that I am a mountain girl, that I would be happy in a somewhat isolated cabin in the woods. Yet I have lived in NYC for 11 years. I don't take advantage of all the things I think of when I think of the city life - 24 hour everyhting, clubs, theater, opera, ballet, underground music or plays - but what I do like is the sense of possibility here. So many people moving here to follow their passion. There is the ability to meet and talk to all different types of people from all over the world here. It is like going on vacation in living here.
And yet, I am that woman who needs the mountains and some removal from all of that as well. I feel in love when I am slightly winded after hiking for two hours and reaching the top of a mountain or some isolated lake or field, less touched then other parts of my daily life. What is that? What me needs to be fed more? Am I ready to leave the city, where I feel stifled but have made an amazing community of friends? (albeit one that is hard to get together due to the difficulties of living in the city). Is it time to move to the west where I connect to the mountains but know few people? Or is it a compromise of the Hudson River, to stay close to friends and family yet have more space?
I digress, space, according to Massey, is a fluid ever-evolving combination of the history, people of and tangentially connected to or through the place. It is not something that is has a hard and fast boundary. So what does this mean for me? . . . TBD