It takes awhile to grow into a place. I've lived here longer than anywhere else, and longer than I would have imagined, but I'm not "from" here. My roots are in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, south of Syracuse. I grew up on a wooded acreage at about 2000 ft elevatio
n, with a sweeping view of the Apulia Valley and Route 20, with its little hamlets like Pompey, Cazenovia and Skaneateles. At night we could see the twinkling lights from Song Mountain, five miles distant. It was a carefree time to come of age, a time of idealism and turbulence, a time for contemplation, a time to just be, without most of the distractions we have today. We rode our bikes, took walks in the woods (delighting to find raspberry bushes or wild strawberries), read books, and dreamed a lot. We had no television until I was 12. (Mom always said that was one of the best parts of my childhood.) It was easy to be in place, to be emplaced...and still, I yearned to leave.
n, with a sweeping view of the Apulia Valley and Route 20, with its little hamlets like Pompey, Cazenovia and Skaneateles. At night we could see the twinkling lights from Song Mountain, five miles distant. It was a carefree time to come of age, a time of idealism and turbulence, a time for contemplation, a time to just be, without most of the distractions we have today. We rode our bikes, took walks in the woods (delighting to find raspberry bushes or wild strawberries), read books, and dreamed a lot. We had no television until I was 12. (Mom always said that was one of the best parts of my childhood.) It was easy to be in place, to be emplaced...and still, I yearned to leave. 
I was thinking, while reading your work here, that the "yearning to leave" could be posited as inquiry, as needing to move outside a space/place in order to frame or reframe one's identity. This made me wonder more about how you seem to so easily use place/space as a geography of inquiry and reflection, such as your trip to Mexico and the class awareness you witnessed there. Thanks for sharing your work here ... I look forward to reading more of your writing.
ReplyDeleteYour comment, "learning to leave" has me thinking as well. So often when I go home to see my family I come back dreaming of when I will move back. I wonder if this yearning comes from a place that is no longer there. To live in my home town as an adult would be a very different think. Thanks for the thought fodder. I am interested to hear more of your places. My mother, who grew up in New Hampshire also tells tales of wild raspberries. Fun connections.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post...I have to admit, I was so relieved to read that a fellow classmate has a background in technical writing. As a former National Park Service employee, I can relate to the form of writing you create. I have struggled finding my "creative place" as a writer. I have to follow suit here with your line about "yearning to leave". After leaving home at 17, I knew I was not going to ever go back. I was sure that "small town" was not my "place". Interesting how life's choices play with your sense of assuredness. Here I am, back in a small town. Though it has taken a great deal of time to become accustomed to little Atkinson,NE, I think I am finally becoming "emplaced". It almost seems at times that living here is a second chance. I was so bent on leaving the first time around, I don't know if I ever really appreciated what I had, the simplistic beauty of the "home place". Thank God for second chances! I look forward to reading more of your work!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your awesome insights...you are going to bring a lot to this class! My favorite part of this post is the tid-bit about your childhood: riding bikes, walking in the woods, reading books, etc. I wish that more of today's students could have those experiences, but it seems like because of the time and place we are in, students don't get to experience walks in the woods eating wild berries or staying up late to read books rather than to watch television(this reminds me of the chapter we read by Mary Pipher). I am a bit of a technology-geek and a lover of all things new and modern, but hearing about this portion of your childhood makes me want to go back to the simple in my classroom...thanks for this. I look forward to reading more from you!
ReplyDeleteIt does indeed take a while to grow into a place. And what’s more, it seems once we leave a place, it tends to somehow more strongly implant itself into our psyche. Often I find I write more about a place—a specific region, even—after I leave it. (Away from Nebraska for the large part of summer, I found myself setting much of my work within the Nebraskan landscape.) I wonder if this is the same for most people?
ReplyDeleteThe “yearning” I wonder, if so much of this stems from our own nostalgia? And if we develop this even for places we longed to (and finally did) leave? (Which can make for wonderful writing, indeed.)
Thank you for these posts.
--Michelle M.