Ecotone: Writing About Place: HowAreWeDefinedAndShapedByThePlaceWeLive

The topic for July 1, 2003:

How are we defined and shaped by the place where we live?

The original posts on this topic are located at:

[The Cassandra Pages] "The first twenty-five years of my life were spent in the rural, dairy country of central New York State. For the second twenty-five I’ve lived in Vermont and New Hampshire... I’ve taken on some of the characteristics of my adopted home, but I think I remain, at my core, a product of the place I was born and an alien here – well-adapted and content, but alien all the same..."

[Feathers of Hope] "Thinking about this question on the plane from Philadelphia to Sacramento over the weekend threw me into a panic. Why? Because I'm not, I don't think..."

[under the fire star] "The first thing about this place is that it is in the tropics. It is hot here, all year round... The second thing is water: we are always on the border between having just enough and not enough water... To these most elemental facts, add human beings. There are so many of them. Too many for the land or the sea to support, and yet, somehow, they scrape by. I'm like one of the fancy plants which are dying out of our garden. I am expensively watered, fed and temperature-controlled. I am always aware of this..."

We invite your thoughts on this topic!