Point Me

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Blessings? Gotta Count 'em.

I have been thinking recently about how much I love the place in the world I live, and how I'm not sure I would ever really want to live very far from where we are now. Paul and I have even talked about just building off our little house when the time comes to expand, instead of trying to find something new.

Reasons I love where we live:
-Fertile Soil
-Sources of Fresh Water within walking distance
- The Variety of wildlife and the peaceful environment that comes from being sandwiched between a state forest and a marsh
- The bikeable proximity to town
- Access to fresh local food, produce, agriculture.
-Generally far from all the ravages of natural disasters; No major earthquakes, tornadoes, or floods, and hurricanes generally peter off before they get to us. We get the blizzards, but REAL new englanders don't give a shit about old man winter. He's NOTHING to us!
- The economic and cultural benefits that come with being within 20 minutes of 5 colleges.
- The Music
- The Restaurants
- The Shops
- The Events
- The Commercial Stability (Thank goodness for students and their carefree spending
habits!)
- The closeness of the Moan and Dove
- The social consciousness and community-mindedness of the region, even if it can be pretentious and hypocritical.
- The newness of our home and the dryness of our basement.
- The hiking trails within walking distance of our house.


In short, we're in a place that feels far away from the assault of urban sprawl, with our neat tiny cities and ample farmland, but we're still close enough to access it. And while I bemoan its downsides every now and again (like "Why oh why do we have to have these monstrous pine trees that kill our lawn dead?" and "Dear god, why did you curse me with a bazillion teenagers living in the house in front of AND behind me?") I really do love the little place we've claimed for ourselves in the world.

If you ever feel bad your geographic situation, or the place you call home, take a second and say "Thank god I'm not an Egyptian Rubbish Person". The way that people in other parts of the world live as a consequence of global frivolity is quite shocking and sad indeed...

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