Every place we pass by in our lives has a story whether we know it or not. These pictures I choose represent the story of my life. As Terry Williams says, “Story offers a wash of images and emotions that returns us to our highest and deepest selves, where we remember what it means to be human, living in place with our neighbors.(Williams3)” I live in a small town south of Boston, a beach town called Hull, or better known as Nantasket beach. It is a town filled with history and beautiful sites to see. These pictures were taking right down the street from my house. Where my friends and I climbed thousands of times over the sand dunes and onto the sandy beach. Squishy are toes between the sand and washing them off in the salty ocean. Splashing around in the waves without a worry in the world. So many memories of my life were made at this beach that I will never forget. After living here my whole life I cannot imagine not living near the water. It brings me peace and serenity being able to walk along the beach and breath in the scent of the ocean as I watch the sunrise and set. Unfortunately more and more commercial properties are taking over my small town to increase revenue. My town is definitely a tourist attraction in the summer which is another reason more businesses want to open here. This may seem like a positive thing for some people since it will make them money. Yet those like myself who have lived in Hull our whole lives are getting upset with this commercial take over. Tearing down trees to make and other landmarks in order to build more beachfront properties for people who will never appreciate the beauty of this town as much as “Hullonians’ do. Although my town is much different from Williams life in southern Utah and I definitely am nowhere close to living in a canyon or desert, I believe it can function as her bedrock of democracy. Many people in my town are coming together just as Williams said, “standing our ground in the places we love, together.(Williams 19)” We may not have the same issues environmental, yet there are still problems here. One of our biggest is the ignorance of many tourists who leave behind trash on our beaches. We come together and do our “homework” to take care of our beautiful home. “Homework is required, a participation in public life to make certain all is not destroyed under the banner of progress, expediency or ignorance. (Williams 19)” I know there have been multiple times I have joined my neighbors in multiple trash pick ups, throwing out garbage and recycling plastic in hopes of saving our wildlife. I may not live in the forest in a log cabin or in a desert but I still love and appreciate nature. I agree with Barbra Kingslover that we as humans need wild places. We need to have a place in nature to escape to when all the chaos of the world seems to be too much. People may not think they need nature or be oblivious to it. I believe even people who live in the city can still make a connection with the Earth, it is up to them whether or not they want to or how often. As Kingslover says, “Wildness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd. It reminds us why in those cases in which our plans might influence many future generations, we ought to choose carefully. (Kingslover3)” This is so important because our actions now regarding nature will greatly influence the generations to come. I believe if we want our children and grandchildren to love our landscapes that made our story as much as we did, we need to be more aware of our actions and take care of nature because she definitely takes care of us.
You are absolutely right. Every place has it’s own story which has a deep meaning and is importance for it’s people. The place that I mentioned in my blog, my village, I still wish to visit that place. I have never been there since so many years but still I crave to visit it. Apart from that, I thought about a place while reading through your blog which is a place where I lived for 18 years. Now when I visit that place I don’t feel like going there and that is just because it isn’t the same it used to be when I lived there. 18 years ago from now that place was amazing. There used to be a spark in that place which was because of us children, not to brag. My grandfather was the chairman of that place and he made sure that the place stays clean and maintained. It’s been 5 years since we moved to another place and whenever I go back to that place to meet my relative I don’t feel connected anymore. The spark is gone, the cleanliness is gone, nothing is there as it used to be. I missed that life. I remember how me and my friends use to roam around to get food and stuff to pass our time, everything was near our range, it was just so good. Now the place I live has nothing of it. No access to shops or any other social life where we can go outside and roam around except inside that colony- not the one that you know, the picture bellow will explain what colony means in my country- which makes me feel as someone has imprisoned me with no chains on, but has set a boundary to stay within. Now you must be wondering that why we moved to such place where there’s nothing except confinement? The answer is ‘NATURE’. You can clearly see the difference between two pictures. The first one is the place I use to live that has been destroyed to its core and the other two is the place where I live. I couldn’t actually copy the pictures thus I had to include the link.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1458881
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31114452@N05/3648221134
http://alshafienterprises.com/project/al-azhar-garden/
So now you know why even after feeling jailed I prefer to live here is because of the nature. The greenery attracts me toward it. The fresh air, with no litter burning, no waste thrown, still feels peaceful which takes away that being caged feeling. I forgot to mention that the current place I live is outside the city. So no matter it’s a city, but I will always prefer to live in a place where I feel connected to the nature, where nature is being respected.
If you haven’t understand the meaning of colony I’ll define it for you. If you can see the boundary in the very last picture, basically a place surrounded by boundaries within which families reside is called colony in my country. Again there’s no ruling, so don’t get confused.
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