Music | Breathe Me by Sia Furler
I have to admit, my thoughts of the East Coast and the Midwest have been rampant in my head lately. I know You can never go back home. Though my yearly visit to Chicago are always enjoyable, I agree with that saying. However, there are parts of being closer to the other coast that I really miss. History, architecture and maybe the soul of being a midwesterner keeps the thought strong in my head.
I came across an article in the NY Times, Columbus Indiana. I think I have yet another reason to go back to the Midwest. Who would have figured a little town of 39,000 holding buildings created by I.M. Pei and Kevin Roche?
I've been trying to define what it is about the midwest that holds strong in my head. Of course, when I was there, I kept thinking what a po-dunk place to be, but now I think differently. And then there is my love affair with the East Coast, Maine down to NYC, places where I've visited and felt very at home.
People travel to warm places in the winter and cool places in the summer. I travel to the east whenever I can...
2 comments:
I had a similar feeling the first time I flew into Minneapolis. As the jet banked into its final approach, I looked down the wing and felt like I knew this place, though I had never been there before. Same kind of woodframe houses, same kind of (I quickly discovered) insulated social circles, whether the circle was Kiwanas or the Evangelical Covenant Church. Okay, so the woods and groves weren't Doug fir, but just about all deciduous and little pine and spruce--but still, it could have been Milwaukie, Oregon, where I spent much of my growing up years. In fact, Edina, Minnesota, could have been uprooted and wafted over the Plains and the Rockies and plopped down in the Willamette Valley and renamed Milwaukie, Oregon. Same conservatism, same social and emotional reticence.
I'm not surprised at all you moved to Portland, and yet so resonate with the Midwest. At least that's my experience.
Home is where the soul feels at rest. You will never be able to change the past events that shaped who you are today. We search for the right fit or connection in our lives. Places provide the backdrop, it's that people provide the connection. I have always felt much more connected to those who were raised in the same general location regardless of their socia-economic upbringing. These are the people that have remained consistent through my life.
Being raised in the big city has exposed me to resources and adventure that has never bored me. Sure natural beauty has a strong pull to any city or town but ultimitely it's the people and culture they bring to it that makes it for me.
As they say; "you can take the boy out of the city, but you can't the city out of the boy."
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