In discussion today for my class The Designed Environment, we were asked what we consider to be our "dwelling"? Do we consider Minneapolis our dwelling? If not, where is our dwelling?
My dwelling is back home in the little town of Merton, just north of North Lake. It is where my home is... pale blue with a couple ponds, some horses, my family...
I can spread out there. I can have my space. There aren't people buzzing about everywhere. I can have my privacy. I can smell the dirt and the air. I can see the stars.
The city is great, I really enjoy the city. There is something going on all the time. So much is so close by. I can get to the largest mall in the Midwest in 40 minutes, I can hop on a bus and visit the biggest library I've ever seen. Get on that same bus and I can be at Target, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, the heart of Minneapolis, in 10 minutes. Here I am at the center of a great city, full of life, art, creativity, food, shopping, and so much more. I can walk most places I need to get to day-to-day. When I want to visit friends, depending on who I'm visiting, I don't even have to leave the building, or they are just a short 15 minute walk away...
But the city doesn't give me the space I need, the freedom I desire. It can be suppressing. There is no where to escape to where I can truly feel alone and at peace with myself and nature. I can go to my room...the room I share with a roommate, the room that is connected to two other rooms by a dividing wall, the room that is sandwiched between floors 7 and 9 in a 12 story building, the room that has everything I need to live comfortably inside, the room that has all my possessions in it, the room that isn't quite "home." I could go to a park, or down by the river, but I can still hear the sound of the cars driving past somewhere nearby, the whine of sirens, the babble of voices...I can still smell the exhaust, the city stench, the heavy air.
My heart cries out for the open space of the country, or even the suburbs would maybe answer the call...but somewhere that allows me to have my space. Somewhere that allows me to smell the fresh dirt... i love the smell of good, clean dirt... to smell the clean air ... especially after it rains ... to see the glittering stars at night ... there are no stars over a city.
I love walking along in the silence of a forest, watching and listening to the birds fly through the trees, dancing in the rain, splashing in a pond, running bare foot through the grass, being out in the world with nature.
Then I like to come back to my home and enjoy time with my family, hang out in my room ... which is probably bigger than the one I share here ... be able to go to different places around the house and still have a few rooms between me and someone else.
I like feeling like I live so far out from everyone else, yet be within 20 driving minutes of everywhere I would need to be.
I didn't realize how much I need that space, how much I would miss it all, until I came to the city.
I may call where ever I currently sleep home, for lack of something better to call it, but it isn't truly home.
It is not the place I truly dwell.
