The love of a place.......

Topophilia is described in Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language as literally love of place. It combines the Greek word topo- or top-, meaning place, with the ending -philia, meaning love of/for. It is generally believed that it was coined by Chinese-American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan in his 1974 book entitled Topophilia: a study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values. Tuan claims that topophilia "can be defined widely so as to include all emotional connections between physical environment and human beings."

I have spent the better part of my life in search of a place.  My mom said after I had finished college and traveled a bit, that I was "never happy" where I was and no matter where I was I would always want to be somewhere else... and maybe that was true both geographically and metaphorically.

I was born on the East Coast of the US, but never dug my heels in there because of moving during those critical formative years (high school!) to Ohio where I finished high school and continued to five years of college before considering going anywhere else.  After graduation I finally was able to explore my family roots on my mom's side and spend a year (on and off) in the United Kingdom.  My maternal grandfather came from Great Britain when he was 18 years old and settled for the rest of his life in upstate New York.  I had always felt a deep-connection to the UK, my grandfather was born in Wales and grew up in and around London. The things I cherished about my grandfather were all conceived in England--his accent and his clear and careful articulation, his beautiful penmanship, and his talent for story-telling and writing which eventually led him to the project of writing his memoir late in life, which tragically was never completed.

Time I spent in GB was extremely meaningful--I was still in lost-soul mode having graduated from college with a degree in art and design that I had no idea what to do with, aside from an interest in someday working in the museum industry. I was appropriately traveling with my soul-mate and closest friend--appropriate because it was a time of breathing and soul-searching as relationships back home ended and the future felt so volatile.  So we hiked, we wrote, we spent long hours in silence, we laughed and cried--my friend and I cemented every piece of our friendship permanently together so that no future distance would ever be able to weaken our bond.......and we hitch-hiked (much to my mom's horror) from London, England all the way up to Inverness, Scotland, exploring on foot some of the most unique landscapes in the world. I could write volumes about that time, but suffice it to say-it was amazing and once in a lifetime.

Now back to today.....after returning from the UK I lived for a short time in upstate NY then left to try out a completely different life on the West Coast, specifically Los Angeles.  Truth be known, I followed a bass-player in a band, but really I only needed an excuse to go somewhere else...somewhere different...and somewhere far....and there I got stuck.  I lived in California for almost 10 years (Southern Cal and then the Bay Area) before landing up in the Seattle area of Washington State......

.....and there I found the place.....THE PLACE....and before I knew it, became a 'topophiliac'.

The cliche, 'You don't know what you have until it's gone' does not apply here.  I knew exactly what I had. On Bainbridge Island, WA a short 30 minute transit across the sound from Seattle--I found my place.

A French person recently asked me, "Which lifestyle do you prefer; the one in France, or the one you had in America?" I had to think for a minute--because I was trying to come up with the elements for the comparison and on the French side--it was difficult.  We do not yet have a lifestyle here.  For the past 3 months it has been constant change and constant adjustment, and truthfully you can't have a lifestyle without having a foundation of routine.  On the American side we had worked very hard to establish a lifestyle which consisted of  a balance of working, home-time, and play.  Being business owners weekends were Sundays and Mondays.  School was Monday-Friday for the boys; there were play-dates and day trips, dinners with friends....Thursday night was "pasta-night" and Sunday night was homemade pizza night. (Yes, our lifestyle quite often revolved around food...) as it should, il est vrai?

Just writing about it in brief makes me ache. Although some people never find a place, others do.  I don't think the ones that do then chose to leave it....I don't know I could be wrong.  I often think moving to France would have been easier if I had moved from a place, say.....like Cleveland.  But you see, the Pacific Northwest is hefty competition even for a place like France.  There is beauty, culture, food, even really decent wine! So add on top of that friends, routine and a familiar language....well like I said, tough competition.

The only question left at this point might be--can a topophiliac fall in-love more than once? The only answer can be--Only time can tell.