The Importance of Place

The New York Times ran a piece on their Learning Network, October 22, 2013, entitled How Much Does Your Neighborhood Define Who You Are? While the post was written several years ago, the notion of it stayed with me in particular because of the country where I was living at the time.

No, Sweden was not for me and the culture – while I had always dreamed of embracing it and did so while living outside the country – in reality, I found that it countered everything I held dear. The inability of being able to authentically express myself in word and deed stymied me profoundly both personally and professionally. The ways I went about marketing my business were no longer truisms in that Scandinavian country. I often felt as if my IQ was being systemically drained because very few people, while they were smart and well read, were willing to discuss what they read or how they felt about it. Debating ideas is not conversational fare at your typical Swedish diner party.

But, intelligence is not only based on how much one knows but also in how one expresses it. Or not. Gone were the days of healthy political debate and intellectual conversation. I missed them dearly.

All of this begged the question, would I – would we – be different people if we were born and raised elsewhere?

It is rare that people stay in one place for all of their life. Most of us grow up, move to another city and settle down, or continue to move about. Some of us go to other countries and stay for years. And while the cultural nuggets we accrue during these travels get added to our personalities, is it in fact, our starter homes and environments which give us our foundation.

You can’t go home again?

In 1937, Gertrude Stein said of her return to Oakland, California, “there is no ‘there’ there.” This quote was with regard to her idea that her childhood home no longer existed. I felt the same way about Sweden, so concerned were they with outside appearances that they stopped embracing their own culture and uniqueness. I was very disappointed that there was no ‘there’ there.

A beautiful definition on the importance of place comes from the National Academies Press within the piece called, The Importance of Place and Connectedness – People and Place. It reads “Like livability and sustainability, place is an ensemble concept”.

How ripe this is for me with connotation because the idea of place is an ensemble concept including not only the neighborhoods we choose to locate ourselves in, the homes we design for ourselves, or the countries and the cultures of a geographic location, but in also smaller microcosmic notions as well. Like music, there are layers of complexity and bars of simple expression.

As I went about making a living in Sweden as a writer, I tried repeatedly to create a writing space for myself within our apartment. It was as simple as having a desk just tucked away in a corner somewhere. Despite my attempts at setting up a space, my writing was usually conducted seated at the kitchen table or upon the living room floor using the coffee table as a surface. These were my writing places and they were woefully inadequate. I can’t help but think that these non-places affected my writing in adverse ways for the entire five years I spent in Gothenburg.

For a writer, there is something comforting, essential actually, about one’s writing space. Whether it be an office, a desk, or a coffee shop, the places writers select to do their craft is important. The coffee has to be just right. The bookshelves arranged just so. The objects on one’s desk all have a significance. These things contribute to a place of creativity and provide nourishment for the creative soul and spirit.

I wish I could claim a gypsy heart and find adventure and place on the road, such as Gloria Steinem in her book My Life on the Road. I will always love travel, and opportunities to visit far away places and collect pieces of those cultures to add to my life experience. But I will always need a place to come home and a writer’s desk which inspires me to share those experiences.

Writer/photographer Lisa Mikulski. Available for print or online publications. Editorial, features, content development, and creative.