I have been on a pendulum for the past six months. On one side, there is Montréal, the place I call home. On the other side, there has been a steady rotation of other places that, one way or another, have made their way into my life over the course of the past 40 years. Each swing of the pendulum, pulling me back to these places, has reminded me of how they changed me, what I learned from them, what I found in them.
As you may know, there is diverse and growing research on place identity. See, for example, this article, which, quoting prominent environmental psychologist, Harold Proshansky, defines place identity as: “those dimensions of self that define the individual’s personal identity in relation to the physical environment by means of a complex pattern of conscious and unconscious ideas, feelings, values, goals, preferences, skills, and behavioural tendencies relevant to a specific environment.”
Damn right.
Dimensions of place and self … interesting to think about and observe. If I had to choose a few words to describe how I identify with the places the pendulum has swung, or how dimensions of myself have been shaped by those places and my time in them, it would go something like this …
One: Hamilton — Modest, a bit odd, and more fun than you might think at first glance. Two: Ottawa — Knows how to make friends that will last a lifetime. Three: Toronto — Can handle the highway and find gems in a quarry (this can also be read as: navigates to avoid careerists and hipsters, finds lovely people). Four: Vancouver — Free-spirited but also grounded. Labour of love at home (quite literally) and at work (where colleagues are friends and life at work is a work of art). Five and six: British Columbia Interior and Vancouver Island — Chop wood, carry water (with love for the old growth forest and walks in the rain). Time stands still, jumps forward and backward, all at once.
Pendulum home: Montreal — Like a heartbeat, its pulse is my pulse.
a few words ... from Montréal 