The Powerful Effect of My Rural Experiences
I lived rurally in the United States for eleven of my seventy-four years: from ages one to six in Greece, New York; from ages ten to thirteen, in Hollins, Virginia; and from ages thirty-three to thirty-six in Raymond, Washington. My rural experiences had a powerful impact on me, and the first RC rural workshop [see previous two articles] let me put attention on them and identify some of their advantages.
BEING ONE WITH NATURE
Living rurally as a youngster kept me understanding that I was a part of nature and had come from nature. Living in an urban setting, in a heavily paved and built-up environment, reduces my awareness of my inherent connection to nature. If I had not had my two strong early doses of living rurally—in the fields, along the creeks, and in other wide-open spaces—I would not as easily remember how important nature is to me and how much I need to stay connected with it.
WEAKER BOUNDARIES
Living rurally has influenced my sense of where I belong and where I can go.
As a child in my rural world, all the open spaces around me were fair game [freely available] for exploring, for moving through. I didn’t ask, “Whose land is this?” or, “Do I need permission to be on it?” I assumed that any open space was available for my use—for walking on, playing on, or running through.
In my urban environments, boundaries have been clearly delineated. As a child I didn’t wander onto a neighbor’s porch or into their yard without a specific purpose, for example, playing with a friend who lived there or delivering a newspaper. I stayed on the sidewalks, found area parks, or played in the streets. Yet because of my rural experiences, I still have a much more flexible attitude toward “boundaries” than many of the adults around me.
NATURE AS A CONTRADICTION TO DISTRESS
In my rural environments I got to experience the joy of being immersed in nature. Nature provided a huge day-to-day contradiction to my parents’ chronic distresses and the oppressive society around me. I would spend hours outdoors, coming home only for lunch or supper and then going right back out into the fields and creeks with my friends.
When I was six years old my dad moved us to a city neighborhood that was a mix of train tracks, large old buildings, and houses built a stone’s throw [a very short distance] away from each other and into half a house that had no front or back yard. When he pulled the car up in front of the house, I asked him why we were stopping there and was stunned when he told us that it was where we would be living. It was an instantly painful experience.
I look forward to hearing others’ experiences and remembering more of the positive impacts of my living rurally in the United States.
Rochester, New York, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 192, July 2018)