Nostalgia (PS: This might make Portlanders mad)

I’m not a terribly sentimental person. I have been known to recycle or give away things once they have exhausted their utility. “Getting my money’s worth” is a term that is less emotional and more functional for me. I don’t hang on to Christmas gifts from family if they aren’t used anymore. I figure someone else can get more out of them than me. I think that my mom is appalled at this notion, but then again I prefer not to clutter up my sanity with physical crap. Becoming a slave to one’s stuff is a dangerous trap that makes us believe that we actually need those physical things. Those stupidly expensive decorative marble baci balls from Pottery Barn that are so artfully displayed on your coffee table: tell me the use of those? Couldn’t you have found something just as cool on a walk through the Albemarle countryside? Plus, those found artifacts would hold a much more powerful memory than the painful one of swiping your credit card for $79.99.
But I digress.
I had intended to tell you about how I accidentally got sentimental this morning upon reading my latest copy of Arches. It’s the magazine of my alma mater, published once per quarter. I have never given money to the University of Puget Sound. I have never attended Homecoming. In fact, I’ve only visited Washington three times since I graduated: once for a bike race, once for a gathering of friends, and once to visit Jonny while he still lived there. I feel few ties to the school frankly because I wasn’t sure that my education was as top-notch as UPS would like it to believe. Granted, I never had a lousy professor and liked my classmates and roommates well enough…but I always had the feeling that the school was a bubble and us rich white kids were pretty sheltered. The alarming lack of ethnic and psychological diversity was appalling…yet I’m not sure I can place the blame on any one party. I’m sure the admissions committee did their best. I’m sure the president did her best. The faculty was certainly great. I’m sure the Greek System did their best (it was about 1/3 Greek, after all). I'm sure the students tried. But in the end I left with a pretty jaded view of rich whiteys from suburban Seattle and Portland; destined to run daddy’s company someday after their obligatory tenure at Microsoft.
Yet today I surprised myself to find that upon looking through the pages of Arches I remembered just how stunningly beautiful Washington is. The greenery of the forests and the majesty of Rainier will take your breath away. This place inspires, and that inspiration will change our world.

I guess I rarely lifted my head up from my easel to see it (and yes, that USGS pic is of Tacoma).

I’ve spent the last 10 years confirming that too much homogeneity both bores and scares me; it runs rampant in the Pacific Northwest. However, I’m okay with that culture; because it’s these places generating innovative ideas that give us all a glimpse of a truly sustainable world. Granted, the inhabitants of that ideal sustainable world have liberal arts degrees, WASPy credentials, 5-day stubble, Columbia parkas, and lattes in their hand; but nevertheless it’s a glimpse. A human-powered gym? Only in Portland. Maybe Atlanta can take a small piece of that and apply it to their sustainability initiatives. Maybe…
So, rock on PacNW. I may have no desire return anytime soon…but I do applaud that you look ahead and don’t get too hung up on the fact that your vision of an ideal future doesn’t always include every social and ethnic group known to man. It’s up to the rest of us to take on that responsibility: altering Utopic visions and applying them to laypeople. I say this not with cruel cynicism but pragmatically. Let the dreamer’s dream, let the doers do. Together, we’ll figure it out. I just hope it’s not too late.
And thanks, Arches, for reminding me of such a special place.