So I took Einar for a walk.

[thrihyrne]

Einar is the large dog of my boss, for whom I'm house- and dog-sitting. It's July 3rd here in the U.S., so it's summer. Interestingly enough, it's also humid (wee bit of rain) and not all that steamy. I'm wearing jeans and a wool jumper, but I am cold-natured. I walked with him, bags in hand to scoop up poop, but also found myself regarding the nearby mountains and wondering just how profound an effect of physical geography has on a young child. I was born in New Orleans, but was only there 3 months. I have no memory of it. My first actualized memories are of tying my shoes, cast in a beam of sunlight, sitting in a hallway in Providence, Rhode Island. My dad was a dermatologist, but he did his medical internship with the Navy, and was a flight surgeon on an aircraft carrier. The man always wanted to fly.

So now I wander around Harrisonburg, on the east coast, finding that I resonate perhaps all too profoundly in the shadows of the mountains. I found myself thinking of llembas, in Colorado, finally freed of the South and its isolation, at least for her. I spent an inordinate amount of time studying Shintoism after discovering Miyazake, and his many gorgeous films. I do still believe on an innate level that the geography that one witnesses from childhood has an integral effect on how we see the world. From a Shintoist persepctive (not that I have one, this is all self-interpolation), if generation after generation awakes and sees gorgeous trees and forests and snow-covered mountains that don't usually erupt, you [as in, child awakening to sense of self] will have a similarly-defined response to the corporeal world, just as a child who might be of Native American descent, born in the desert, might inherit topography and verbiage and vocabulary to suit the environs in which s/he was born. What is it like to grow up in a valley? To know innately that one is in the 'vee' of forces beyond oneself? To be sheltered, as opposed to being born on a plain, or near a swamp?

I'm totally spouting off, but I do believe that one's geography, and especially one's *ancestral* geography, has a profound affect upon how one sees the world, and describes it.

Yeah. So. My therapist thinks I'm a MENSAn, but I don't know. I dated one, but wasn't intimidated by him. How fair is it to try and calculate intelligence, after all?!

Comments

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Oooh, this reminds me of reading the Annales school historians in graduate school. They have this whole "geography is destiny" kind of attitude.

MENSA: When I was 18, I won a small scholarship from the local MENSA. I went to their meeting thinking that maybe it was an organization I would like to join. After all, you just had to score high on a standardized test to do it. I found them all really socially awkward. Their conference, at which I received the award, had many workshops on how to date! I found them both immature and kind of snobbish! It seems funny now, since I was a good 15-20 years younger than most of those people.

You are probably as intelligent or more intelligent than people in your local MENSA. If you want to meet smart people who share your interests, you would do better to just, you know, explore your interests. Like folkdancing, fandom, or you know--other things that, uh, start with f.

Meep.

If all else fails, there's always the cheese workshop at the local Whole Foods. Heeeeeee!

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

They have this whole "geography is destiny" kind of attitude.

I just can't help but think that for creatures as affected by sight as we are (unless blind, of course), that one's physical geography doesn't leave a profound psychological mark on us. I moved around a lot, but my grade school years in central Washington state I'm sure created some of my love of mountains. But for whole cultures, especially island cultures, I'd suspect that generation after generation of being in the same place, the same topography, really does shape the culture as a whole.

And the MENSAns— I didn't mean to imply I was going to seek them out. I doubt there's a group here, but even if there were, I doubt I'd try to hang out with them. I'll take the knitters. ;)

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Also, of course, where you live determines what you eat and the industry where you work. Or at least, it used to!

[cim-halfling.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- I was born in Dallas. No mountains, no water, all flat, and hot (summer anyway!). But I resonate with mountains, trees and rivers the most. Hmmm, sounds so beautiful where you are!

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

But I resonate with mountains, trees and rivers the most.

Well, perhaps you, like Jen, were born into a place that you somehow knew wasn't really where you wanted to be. You're able to go into the woods not too infrequently, right? And I think that some people simply aren't self-aware enough to realize that they care one way or another. I don't think I'd spend too much time around them, though. :P

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

How fair is it to try and calculate intelligence, after all?!

Hm, well... let me just say that yesterday, at the supermarket, when I asked the woman at the deli counter for 3/4 lb. of ham, I had to tell her that was .75 on the scale. And when I bought a piece of salmon at the meat counter, wanting 1-1/2 lb., and the woman there initially cut off a 2-lb. piece, her next attempt proved to be about 1-1/8. How hard is it to understand that if you have a 2-lb. piece, you need 3/4 of that to make 1-1/2 lb.?

Maybe that's a failure of education, but boy, I seem to remember learning fractions and things in about 2nd or 3rd grade. So an adult not knowing that -- especially when it's part of their job to know that -- makes me think poorly of their intelligence.

The geographical influence -- hm. Maybe. Although I don't think that ancestral geography can directly influence a person, only in the sense that one generation may develop vocabulary that's affected by a particular geography and then transmit that same vocabulary to its descendants even if they move to a different place.

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

So an adult not knowing that -- especially when it's part of their job to know that -- makes me think poorly of their intelligence.

I spend so much of my time feeling as though I'm living outside of myself, watching as I make my way through the world, I do the same for other people; I watch them as though I'm not really there. I do see people who seem barely capable to do even the most menial tasks, but I can't know what kind of background they've had to be where they are. But yes; many people in this world seem to be not very intelligent.

in the sense that one generation may develop vocabulary that's affected by a particular geography and then transmit that same vocabulary to its descendants even if they move to a different place.

:nods: Yes, I think that's very true. When I was reading up on Shintoism, one thing that immediately struck me was that it was *so* tied to Japanese geography. You couldn't have their sense of spirits in the world with the kind of phrasing they had if you lived in a desert, or in Iceland, where the geology is in a constant state of flux. Thanks for commenting!!

[matildabishop.livejournal.com]

Are we talking racial memory here? Or is that an out-dated term? I don't have a MENSA bone in my body and I have been in the Mama-loop so long, my brain has been pretty well purged of anything academic.

I was raised in the South and I know that going back South and seeing the trees, the beach, the centipede grass and the quality of the light makes all sorts of stuff go PING in me. I find the desert difficult to look at some times. I can see why it's beautiful but it's not a place I could find any comfort.

Love and kisses,
Matt

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

You're BACK!!!! :::tackle hugs:::

Don't know about racial memory as much as cultural geographic memory. I really was thinking of Shintoism and the Japanese islands, but really, any culture that isn't nomadic and lives in the same place for thousands of years, it's bound to affect every aspect of sense of self: vocabulary, spirituality, all of it. But your comment about parts of the south making you PING also resonates; even if it's not where you want to be now, perhaps there's some kind of mapping on your psyche that happens when you're young that you can't erase when older.

I miss you, dearie. If you have the time, drop me a quick email and just let me know how you're doing, okay? ♥

[matildabishop.livejournal.com]

I'm BACK!!! *glomps you*

Oh, I believe in that mapping of the psyche stuff. I spent my formative years in SC and so did all my people, paternal and maternal. Daddy's people have been on the same piece of ground since before the Civil War. Did I mention we have a family cemetary? Plenty of room up there. So snuzzle up to me forever if you want a free plot.

Email soon.

Love,
Matt

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Hadn't really thought about where I'd like to be buried, though honestly I think I'd prefer to be creamated. Now where to put the ashes...

Just have been missing you.

[matildabishop.livejournal.com]

Miss you too, hon.

Yeah, even my parents are talking about cremation and we have Lou's father up on the bookshelf piece. Daddy offered Lou a space in the family cemetary for his Dad's urn. There is at least one other urn interned there. I am very fond of that cemetary because it was a playground for us when we were growing up. Only in the day time, of course.

[wolfiekins.livejournal.com]

I'd have to say that I tend to agree that the physical topography of one's childhood has a lasting effect on one's adult perception of what environment is 'right' for them. I grew up barely a block from Lake Erie, spending nearly every warm day skulking about the beach. My high school was right on the shore, and you could always see a patch of the water from the north side's second and third floor windows. And the lake has a sound all it's own in the fall, winter and spring, a low, roaring sound that is quite soothing, actually. I missed the lake terribly the eleven years I lived in Dayton, a nice area, but it just didn't feel right without that huge body of water defining the boundary of my little world. So, I need to be by water, it seems, to feel truly comfortable.

I've also been to Florida countless times starting when I was eight or so, and I love it. I immediately feel at ease when I see those palm trees, expanses of water and sandy beaches. Again, this might lend credence to your theory, as I spent a good deal of my childhood visiting there regularly.

I have been to Colorado finally, and I was amazed at the pull of the mountains. There was just something about them that seemed to draw me in, some strange force compelling me to just point the car and drive up into them. The day we went up to about 7,500 feet it was snowing rather heavily, but I just wanted to keep going. It was beautiful! Not sure if I could live there, but I found it compelling nonetheless.

As for the MENSA thing, I'm not sure how much you'd have in common with a group of people that just happen to have high IQ's. While I do think that one's environment has a profound effect on how one utilizes their given level of intelligence, it strikes me as a somewhat random way to associate with people, along the lines of, say, tall red-headed people...wait, there wouldn't be a problem with that, now that I think of it...Anyway, I agree with one of the other comments that it might be more satisfying to seek out like minded individuals into knitting, reading, Scotland, travelling, or whatever. Just my two knuts...

And I'm constantly surprised that people are shocked that I can add, subtract, and figure percentages in my head. I REFUSE to use a calculator for simple addition and subtraction. And this is really a hoot: 90% of the time, even though I've told the person the answer, the check it out on their calculator anyway. I just stand there a grin...

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your comments! I would imagine that the pull of water would have a huge hold on you, given your childhood. Also, knowing your ancestry, perhaps you have an ancestral affinity for the water. Who knows; these kinds of thoughts just go stampeding through my mind and sometimes I post them. It's gratifying to hear other people's perspectives on some of the disorderly cacophany otherwise known as my mind.

As for the MENSA thing, I wouldn't seek them out; it's just funny that my therapist brought it up. He asked if I knew what my IQ was, and I had to admit that I don't. I have an ongoing issue with him, though: he's not to let me out-analyze him. Because I'll do it. I need him to force me to *feel*.

And here in H'Burg, I do have some common folk, and there are several knitting stores, so I have all kinds of kindred. :)

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Yes. Consider people brought up in concentrated urban environments like Manhattan or Hong Kong or Singapore, for whom a city is the natural environment.

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about that; I guess I'm still thinking that there's a pull to the geography beyond the buildings, but yes. I wonder what it's like for people who spend their entire lives in a city. :shudder:

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

As with any environment, I suspect that much depends upon your social circumstances, and of course the degree of hostility, in the impersonal as well as the personal sense, of that environment. Someone of the middle class or above brought up in a safe, pleasant city, might well associate a rural life, however picturesque the surroundings, with isolation and poverty of both mind and body.

hooked

[huntmooses.livejournal.com]

so i'm reading harry potter fanfic now. compulsively. but it seems like a crapshoot. could you recommend some of your author friends. i've already read a bunch of your stuff. not really into the slash stuff. and you're probably mensa. for what it's worth.

things are lovely here. just about to do a moving trip with the fiancee from chicago to denverland. i grew up where it was flat flat flat, but lots of forests.

Re: hooked

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

SEAN!!! I posted for your birthday, but then I didn't see you around for ages, so I took the post down.

Yikes— recs for HP fanfic. I'm going to need a little more to go on, because as you're bound to know, there's a vast sea of fanfic, and a lot of it is absolutely atrocious. Are you looking for plotty genfic? As in, general fiction, not necessarily pairing-centric and nonslash. What would you like to read? If you give me some parameters, I can probably recommend some authors, though since I tend toward the slash, that's what I know better than some other genres. That being said, if you'd like a longish, exquisitely written Marauder-era story (set when Harry's parents are at Hogwarts, but I'm sure you knew that), read Redeeming Time (http://www.vidweasels.com/Minx/Door_to_River/redeeming1.html). Gorgeous, well-drawn characters, and one of only a very few stories that made me cry.

Let me know what your focii are, seriously, and I'll find you some authors. Drive safely with your beautiful fiancée, okay? Have you set a date?

[llembas.livejournal.com]

I know that the geography I grew up on definitely affects the way I view the world. And especially just the knowledge that the land has been in my family for so many generations. I'm used to LOTS and LOTS of trees and water. And I'm finding the lack of both very hard to adjust to here. The mountains are lovely, but the almost desert-like terrain in some places is not something I'm used to. And the complete lack of water is a shock. I haven't really latched onto emotionally to Colorado like I did instantly with San Diego and that wide expanse of ocean that always seemed to alive. So....the thought of up and moving again when (yes, I'm thinking positively) I find a library job somewhere else isn't such a big deal, since I don't feel attached. Apparently I'm more elf than dwarf because the ocean has been calling me since the moment I left it, and the mountains just...don't. They're gorgeous and I love them, but they don't speak to me on that same level. *shrugs* It's strange.

*laughs*

Thank you for your wonderful card, I got it in the mail today. :)

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

I bet it is hard for you, being there, without trees and water. This intermediary point I'm sure has its place, though; perhaps because you aren't too attached it will be easier to move on, but I suspect it's been a good place for you to be for a time.

Thanks for your email; I'll reply soon. Glad you enjoyed the card. :)

(((hugs)))

[sanba38.livejournal.com]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0939154501/sr=8-1/qid=1151992106/ref=sr_1_1/102-4422861-1704159?ie=UTF8

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566472032/qid=1151992287/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-4422861-1704159?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks for the links!

[sanba38.livejournal.com]

And when are you going to come visit me? You know 3/4 of the kids at my school are indigenous, yeah?

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Next time I go to Australia and/or NZ, I'll stop by and see you, if possible. How's that for vague? I just get so intimidated by Hawaii, it seems so sunny. I know Oz is just as sunny, but I know so many more people there, and I'm always traveling there on the off season, so it's autumn/winter. But knowing you're where you are is quite compelling. ;) I do love your photographs, though I don't comment on them all the time.

[sanba38.livejournal.com]

Ananimal guardian story, from one of Harriet's grandchildren.