Sometimes A Great Notion

There is usually a moment most days where I think about Montana. It is a mix of missing someone you love and homesickness. When I think about Oregon now, it is mostly in relationship to Montana. Without ancient Lake Missoula, the Willamette Valley and the Columbia River Gorge would not exist. Most of the unique features in the Metro area are linked to geologic activity in Montana. If you look, you can find limestone and other rocks that were carried over and deposited by glaciers here.

I live in Oregon now and I haven’t yet learned how to love it. I know it will come at some point because I found myself missing Ohio once. I never thought I would even like Ohio, let alone miss it. But I’ve always liked openness and infinity and it was only a matter of time until I liked that about the Ohio landscape.

Oregon should be easy to love. I think that everyone around me seems to love it. It has oceans, ancient forest, rivers, and mountains; it is rain forest and high desert. It’s objectively perfect in every respect for someone with my necessities and interests. There are moments it challenges me to think about people and nature, use and misuse, natural and built, in ways that Montana never will.

I don’t want these things. I don’t have any desire to explore my relationship (with not to) nature in any way that is intellectual or academic. I think it should be entirely visceral, tactile, and emotional above all else. I don’t think this approach precludes thoughtfulness or scrutiny; it just gives them a back seat to joy and appreciation.