Mobilizing vs. Localizing

Photo by gardngrl

On some level I think it's tacky to open a post with an apology and an excuse. That, however, is exactly what I'm prepared to do today. I want to apologize (to myself as much as anyone) for not attending better to this blog. My thoughts and ideas haven't come to an end, but my downtime at work certainly has over the last three weeks. Alas, given the cycles of the academic year, my busy-ness is likely to only intensify in the short-run. But come mid-to-late June, I should be back on top of my game. So please pardon the infrequency of my posts and responses to comments. The end of the school year is in site.

Today, in the few minutes that I have, I want to point to something I read in today's New York Times. It's from the editorial entitled "Pondering Some Old, Familiar Questions on the Road Across Country" by Verlyn Klinkenborg. His editorial reads like a short essay on what it means to be able to live just about anywhere. The quote that stood out for me is the following: "...what I’m really asking when I wonder 'Could I live here?' is 'Who would I be if I did live here?' To that question I never know the answer."

Why does this quote intrigue me so? For starters I like Klinkenborg's implicit acknowledgment that a place imprints the people who live there. Moreover, in these few words of Klinkenborg's I believe there can be found the view that one cannot begin to know a place unless one has settled in that place for some length of time. What does that have to do with anything generally and this blog particularly? Well, I think the farther we get from something the less we know about it. Sure, distance may make it possible to take the macro view of something or somewhere. But in distance, relevant details are lost. It is this realization of the importance of proximity to familiarity that makes me doubt technology's ability to stand-in for local controls. Local is better because it can be witnessed, and not just by the eyes and ears. Viewing life through a local lens is also critically important because mobility undermines imprinting and the investment of peoples' time, energy and good will in a particular place.

What do others think?

A good Wednesday to you, one and all.