22 December 2007

INNER/OUTER LANDSCAPES

When I worked in Appalachian Kentucky, deep in the folded, forested mountains of bloody Harlan County, there were people who expressed to me their perceived need to have the closeness of the mountain slopes next to them. I, from the rolling hills of flatlands Midwest Kentucky, felt a bit claustrophobic and closed in, when I could not gaze out on any meaningful horizon.

In either case, it's our individual cognitive constructs interpreting the environments and landscapes around us. In some sense, we are formed by the environment/landscape in which we live, not in any deterministic way, but in dynamic interaction. There is interplay between our inner space and our sense of place--its environment and landscape. Each helps form the other.

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