Connection (NJ9)


A few weeks ago, I was back in Nebraska for a weekend.  Just hours after I arrived, my parents and I sauntered through the neighborhood to check out the construction down the road.  As we turned around in the cul de sac, I had to stop to take a picture of the sky.  Of course, the picture does not do the scene justice, but it reminds me of the picture stored in my mind.  The picture prompts me to think and analyze about more than the surface.  The picture was taken in a place, Nebraska.  For me, though, it is not just Nebraska.  It is the place where I grew up, made best friends, played soccer, learned to wakeboard, and started understanding my identity.  More than what Nebraska provided me, I had a connection to the environment there, too.  For years, my brother and I worked landscaping and lawn care.  We were cognizant of the rain, wind, warmth, and weather because it affected how we cared for our yards.
            Perhaps it is not just the place of Nebraska, then, but the relationship to the place.  I think it is the connection to the location that makes Nebraska special to me.  These thoughts make me think of a quote from Barry Lopez in The American Geographies.  He states, “If you want to know you must take the time: It is not in the books” (p. 915).  I might know more about the land history of Nebraska than most Texans, but I admit that I have not read books and studied (in the academic sense) what the lands of Nebraska have to offer.  Maybe I do not know the elevation and square mileage of the surrounding land, but I know the land in the sense that I have lived on it, with it, and for it.



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