Heart Homes: Place as a State of Mind

            Jack Weil, entrepreneur and owner of Rockmont Ranch Wear, said: “The west is not a place; it is a state of mind.”  He was right, of course.  Anyone experiencing the wonder of the Garden of the Gods or the stunning beauty of the Rocky Mountains will undoubtedly agree that there is something undeniably unique about the American West. 

            Mr. Weil’s mistake was not in his statement itself, but in his limiting it to the West alone.  There are many places that become a state of mind when one spends time in them.  There are many places that get under the skin and slip into the psyche, making themselves at home and forever changing the outlook of their bearer.  Yes, the American West, from Yosemite to the Bad Lands, has the capacity to invade one’s soul and make itself a permanent part of them, but it is not alone in that aptitude.

            In his book The Gary Snyder Reader: Poetry, Prose and Translations, philosopher and naturalist Gary Snyder remarked: "But if you do know what is taught by plants and weather, you are in on the gossip and can feel truly at home.  The sum of a field's forces [become] what we call very loosely the ‘spirit of the place.’  To know the spirit of a place is to realize that you are a part of a part and that the whole is made or parts, each of which in a whole.  You start with the part you are whole in."

            Novelist Charles de Lint calls this “part you are whole in” a Heart Home– a very accurate term, when one considers the human tendency to prefer one landscape over another.  (Some people prefer mountains to beaches while others are the opposite.  Some find the greatest inner peace amid sun-bathed plateaus while others find it deep in sheltering forests.)  This is not to say that an individual cannot appreciate the awe-inspiring loveliness of multiple natural landscapes, but, as Gary Snyder suggests, most have a true love among the treasures of the natural world.

            And each of these landscapes can be said to be a state of mind.  Let us play a theoretical matching game.  Let’s say that you have before you six photographs.  On the left-hand side are three pictures of three individuals.  The first is dressed in fitted jeans, calf-high, pointed-toed boots made of hardened snakeskin, a practical button-down shirt and a wide-brimmed Stetson hat.  The second is dressed in somewhat looser jeans, a khaki-green t-shirt, and a worn brown leather jacket.  This person is also wearing boots, but these are made of a water-proofed canvas-like material and lace up past his ankles.  The third person is wearing outdoor khaki pants, a light-weight shirt, sun-glasses and sneaker-like slip-on shoes.

            On your right-hand side are three pictures of natural landscapes. The first is a photograph of Cloudland Canyon.  Forest trees stand sentinel near the mossy bed of a mountain stream.  They dip their woody toes into the flow, casting green tree-shadows across the water as it bounds along its stony course.  In the background a waterfall tumbles from a rocky height.  The sky winks cool blue eyes through woodland branches.  The next picture captures a view of Cumberland Island.  A white, sandy beach stretches up from grey-blue Georgia coast waters.  Like a continuation of the sea, the sand rises into dunes– motionless tides that break against banks of grassy hills.  Driftwood curves into graceful, statuesque forms.  Behind that a beautiful tangle of live oaks rises to form a dream-like maze beneath an azure sky.  The final picture is an image of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado.  Sandstone cliffs and plateaus soar and twist into fantastical shapes.  Sunset dyes stony faces rosy-orange and casts a patchwork of vibrant color and dusky shadows on the rough, scrubby ground.  The painted sky seems to stretch one forever.

            Now, I would like you to guess which person matches which landscape. 

Even without actual photographs, most readers would doubtlessly be able to complete this task easily.  Any American person would be likely to associate these three people with a particular type of place.

Why?  The theoretical photographs of the three people could easily have been taken at a shopping center or on a college campus.  I think most people living in the American South can recall having seen individuals in similar clothing as that described above walking down average sidewalks or through normal hallways.  So what associates these people with a particular landscape?

The answer is simple.  They have, to one extent or another, connected themselves with the state of mind that is a particular place.  The way in which they have chosen to present themselves to society is a reflection of who they feel they are, or perhaps who they want to be.  This is an indicator of certain landscape– or maybe even the idealistic notion of that landscape– has wound its way into them and made itself a part of their self-perception.  A place or certain sort of place has become the setting in which each individual person feels whole.  In essence, it has become their Heart Home.