On Writing, Rivers, and Place Identity.

Image borrowed from NY Times review

On the banks of Thoreau's beloved Concord River, UMass-Lowell hosted author Jane Brox as she spoke of "Reading, Writing, and Sense of Place." Brox wrote Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light which was praised as one of the top nonfiction books of 2010 by TIME magazine, among others. It was reviewed in the New York Times, here. Speaking of rivers and home brought up memories of my own hometown and the river running through it.

I've written about this little river before.

How have your memories of  places changed over time? For me, when I go "home" to SE Minnesota, it is a mixture of memory and change that gives me pause. Often the difference between the "then" of youth and the "now" of adulthood have an intuitive continuity. Sometimes there is a striking disconnect.

Sunset on the Root.

The changing community and my changing self find, in essence, one common constant: the Root River. One may never look into the same river twice, so to speak, but time and again, there it is. Even after disastrous floodwaters recede, or when drought threatens, there it is. Popular with anglers, paddlers, and bikers along the converted railroad trail, it is the lifeblood of this Driftless rural region in many ways, not the least of which is tourism.

I often feel I should write about it, the old home place, but never really have. Writing for an audience of one (oneself) seems an exercise in solipsism unless tied to some greater, external relevance.  That relevance (or, more specifically, the time to ponder it) just hasn't cracked my consciousness. Or, if it has, I've just been too busy to notice. It is a "place" I carry around with me still, a piece of what social scientists and humanistic geographers usually call place identity.

A water trail map (pdf) from MN DNR is available here, for those who are interested. Write about it or your own home place. And, please, let me know if you do.