tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post6481845641277771419..comments2024-03-17T08:34:15.051-07:00Comments on Books in Northport: The Place of Place: “Do I Stay, or Do I Go?”P. J. Grathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-77998627791245649762016-02-26T19:35:37.403-08:002016-02-26T19:35:37.403-08:00I read it all the way through the day you publishe...I read it all the way through the day you published. I am having a terrible time formulating my own thoughts. Over the last year I've been thinking a lot about my places in the world. Haven't finished yet. To be continued.Gerryhttp://torchlakeviews.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-65454087340950700562016-02-23T05:58:15.807-08:002016-02-23T05:58:15.807-08:00Here is another interesting comment received as e-...Here is another interesting comment received as e-mail that adds a great to what others have written:<br /><br />"I just finished reading your ... blog about sense of place. I would do well to reread it. So far, the penultimate paragraph strikes me as very close to my own view.<br /><br />"But maybe here is a new angle based on my experience: Some places, at the time you inhabited them, were percolating with a sense of their place in history, not just a sense of place. In my experience the sense of place and sense of place/importance in history were equally determining and detectable in the way the locals talked about their village or city. I refer both to my kibbutz (1950-55), and in a way Jerusalem (1959-64). So, though I only spent 5 years in each of those locations, they left a deep impression on me, a deep and grateful sense of belonging, commensurate with their importance in Jewish and Israeli history."<br /><br />Living somewhere in a time historically significant for that place would certainly intensify impressions and memories.P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-12611304448660964142016-02-22T07:56:05.102-08:002016-02-22T07:56:05.102-08:00Yes, Deborah, we are indeed lucky to be able to ex...Yes, Deborah, we are indeed lucky to be able to explore farther afield via books! David, thank you for those very relevant quotations. And here's another comment that came to me by e-mail from the coast of Maine: <br /><br />"Your post (which I did read from beginning to end) made me think of Thoreau speaking of "Travelling much in Concord." I have faced the same question many times in painting. This part of the country is all about the ocean. Every gallery is filled with seascapes. For a long time I decided they were trite, and tried to avoid doing them. At some point, I realized how embedded I am in this place. To not paint it would be more a separation from my reality. I know it better than I know anything else.<br /><br />"Though I've traveled, I've never spent more than a few weeks in any other place. I've returned to the same places many times, each time only to find them entirely different from my memories of them. As Albuquerque appears under the wing of the plane, I think, "Oh, yeah, I remember now." But then I start to notice that things are different. The landscape isn't as flat, the mountains not so high, the desert not so barren. The city is not quite as full of billboards. On the third visit it is different, again..........nicer than the last time when I came home describing it as a big gravel pit. Pick up trucks with yellow dogs and guns in the back are not as prevalent, water not so scarce. <br /><br />"I think everyone "knows" a place in a different way. The place itself is independent of the person looking at it. Eastport has been my home for over a decade, but the way I see it is in no way the same as those who were born here and lived here most of their lives. An artist always creates a self-portrait."<br /><br />Isn't that last line great? "An artist always creates a self-portrait." Quotable quote, Cheri!<br />P. J. Grathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12693462910472164289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-23332493197936622562016-02-21T05:01:01.791-08:002016-02-21T05:01:01.791-08:00"You want to keep moving, and you want to sta..."You want to keep moving, and you want to stay still, but lost in the moment some longing gets filled"...Joni Mitchell<br />"Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America -- that we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement. At any rate, that is how it seemed to young George Webber, who was never so assured of his purpose as when he was going somewhere on a train. And he never had the sense of home so much as when he felt that he was going there. It was only when he got there that his homelessness began."<br />Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17423850525356822051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4130421352415377273.post-68334768909868255332016-02-20T14:36:45.391-08:002016-02-20T14:36:45.391-08:00I did indeed read the whole blog in one sitting, y...I did indeed read the whole blog in one sitting, you didn't lose me! I'm always anxious to travel and see new sights, to climb new mountains as well as to climb a mountain again and again. I hope there will always be new adventures. Like Sarah, I can always find something I want to explore. Aren't we lucky to have authors that provide new grounds to explore when we can't leave home?Deborahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02101133608076884449noreply@blogger.com