…Somewhere where nothing is there that was there when you were growing up. It all has changed around you as you got old.
…Somewhere where everything stays the same and you’re the only thing that changes.
***
I think of the Lansing/EL/Okemos metropolitan statistical area as an example of the first situation. A local history documentary is titled “things that aren’t here anymore.” Because around here history is gone. You can’t see it anymore. There’s no real trace left of what the (non)community was even 10-20 years ago. It’s a baseless feel — no moorings. At 50 you feel like you’re 15 because everything is still all new.
I think of Vienna, Austria as an example of the second. I visited long ago and learned that hardly anyone who grows up there ever leaves. They may well be sophisticated world travelers but they stay. And much that’s around you stays as well. Most buildings are there for hundreds of years. There’s lots of new art and architecture, though. New businesses, too — but somehow they don’t displace the old. This creates an anchor to grow old around. Something to measure off of.
Vienna is a grey city of stone. I also visited Amsterdam a few times — it’s a colorful young city — but it also probably doesn’t change so much. Maybe cities don’t, really, and suburbs are what flow like water. Yet, NYC sure has changed since the 80’s, eh? But perhaps it keeps something. Maybe not. America is that way. Perhaps other big US cities hold steadier, being less purely american than NYC. Maybe not. I suppose you have to go to Canada to find continuity. Compare to Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, for instance.
