Favorite place

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

A friend was making a list of things she loved, and wonderful list that it is, several things jumped out at me. This one for example. It is the only geographic location she chose to list.

I began to wonder: where is my favorite place? In a list of things I love, where would I put?

I start looking back – lots of places come to mind. Places I’ve enjoyed: running the streets and Plaza in D.C. at midnight, getting stuck in Jacksonville for a day, Casa Bonita in Denver, the entire metro area of Phoenix, and Dallas.

Well, there I go. I was going to ponder in writing what I had pondered in my head… all the places I can think of were special because I was there with other people. Its not the place as much as the sharing it with others.

So, I was thinking, are there any places I love just for me? I loved sitting on the overlook at Westcourt in the Buttes, watching the sun set and the planes land and take off from Sky Harbor, the balcony on the Art building, or sitting in my studio doorway, watching campus happen, as Oso taught me to do.

I love high places, places that look out. I am thinking of some mountain peaks, the top parking garage at Sky Harbor, the roof of my home in high school, a couple of bridges that look over some neat stuff, cresting on a rollercoaster, some hills that overlook the City. But I can’t say that I “love” any one of those places.

What about personal places? Personal space? Where I go to get away, hide out. The first place that comes to mind is Trynity’s yard. Its refreshing. Others? There is a railroad bridge over the River here in The City which has a pedestrian walkway. I like to go there and watch the water at night and think (take a nightstick). There is one hill here in town, too. But they are building too much in that area, so I don’t go there much anymore.

Cities? I love Dallas and Phoenix, I guess. They are each very cool. Dallas, if for no other reason than its radial plan. Phoenix, because its desert. And because every climate is within an 8 hour drive. Including ocean.

I said “there I go” back up yonder, because I hadn’t thought of these cities yet, until I typed them in the opening paragraph. They seem to answer the question, in a way. But Phoenix & Dallas are hardly Jackson Hole. There’s an intimacy there (to my mind) that these cities are too large to have. Thus I am not content to count them as valid.

I love small, ritual places – for example, when driving thru Santa Rosa, NM, I always stop at a C-Mart just off the highway, because they have SlushPuppies. It is a ritual for me. I like to visit Granite, CO. Its a convenience store. But I like to drive through, because of trips with my father. I have places like this scattered across the country. Mostly they are bound to a particular memory.

But mostly, the places dearest to my heart are those where I shared a valuable experience with others.

Update: 8 years later… [0905.18]

The conclusion is still true. However, the C-Mart in Santa Rosa is now some other chain, and they no longer have SlushPuppies. Granite has built up into another over-done tourist type town. Phoenix has simply grown too large for its own good, and I haven’t been back to Dallas for years – maybe I should.

I find that a lot of the places where I have homing beacons – these locations that call to me, call to my significance – have changed and are gone. The place may remain, but the homing has left. They have become something different – in many cases, something overused.

In looking back at the more important homing places, I see that they are mostly secluded places. Private spaces. Even a public venue like a C-Mart, is private in the way that it draws to me, in the connection I have with it.

That fact suits me as an introvert. It also explains the nature of the destruction that occurs which renders the homing function inert.

I find today that, as I drive cross country less (not at all anymore), I have new but less attractive – less strong – beacons around this area.