A Sense of Place

It is very difficult to have a sense of place in the world today.  My home is in Bristol, TN.  Throuhgout the last two years I have visited or lived in South Carolina, England, Ireland, North Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands, Washington DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

I consider myself very fortunate to have travelled to all of these places.  I would not be the same person without these travels.  But, we must dig deeper.  Are there any hidden weights, burdens that accompany our modern ability to travel the globe and be “home” for dinner?

People today speak of the “global community.”  Indeed, we have a seemingly global market; we purchase items produced in every corner of the world.  But, pursuing a “global community” is quite the contradiction.  In today’s global community we KNOW nobody.  It is a shallow excuse for an ever pervasive individualism.  Liberals promoting “global community” and conservatives encouraging a global marketplace (the final result of true free trade) are both giving the same, bland gift wrapped in a slightly different package. 

I consider myself very fortunate to have grown up in northeast TN.  We have a sense of real community.  We know our neighbors, all of our family lives near our home, and I am related to 1/4 of the people who attend our church.  It seems a few local businesses would fit nicely in Bristol, but most conservatives in our area embrace the Limbaugh brand invidualism.  Rush Limbaugh certainly does not understand east TN and few parents would promote him as their child’s role model, so why do we promote his policies?   Instead of worrying about Wall St. and corporate bailouts, perhaps we can concern our thoughts with something that truly matters and something we can impact tomorrow.  Go meet your neighbor.

Below are some pictures of my home, my roots: