Catherine really touches on something that I have been thinking about a lot lately--moving around and sense of place. How does one find a deep connection when we move around so often? Can we find a sense of place in the city, a home that has some green mixed in with the buildings and roads and sidewalks?
I have moved every two years since I graduated from College six years ago. I am constantly learning to love a new place and then it is gone from me, and I am another 1,000 plus miles away. I am alternately jealous and in awe of those like Stephanie Olivieri, who can walk to the places she dug worms as a child. So many memories and roots are laid down, provide initiative and conviction. I think she is a stronger fighter than me and I am trained in environmental studies and community activism. I wonder, though, if it is time that teaches those connections or something more. Perhaps work or play or some other interaction?
From my own experience, it is often the stories that start a love of place. Knowing not just the name of a mountain, say, but a family that lived there once, maybe still lives there now, and a little bit about them.
Genevieve Marsh
how to foster place in a mobile world
Catherine really touches on something that I have been thinking about a lot lately--moving around and sense of place. How does one find a deep connection when we move around so often? Can we find a sense of place in the city, a home that has some green mixed in with the buildings and roads and sidewalks?
I have moved every two years since I graduated from College six years ago. I am constantly learning to love a new place and then it is gone from me, and I am another 1,000 plus miles away. I am alternately jealous and in awe of those like Stephanie Olivieri, who can walk to the places she dug worms as a child. So many memories and roots are laid down, provide initiative and conviction. I think she is a stronger fighter than me and I am trained in environmental studies and community activism. I wonder, though, if it is time that teaches those connections or something more. Perhaps work or play or some other interaction?
From my own experience, it is often the stories that start a love of place. Knowing not just the name of a mountain, say, but a family that lived there once, maybe still lives there now, and a little bit about them.
Genevieve Marsh