We took a break today and went to our favorite honey farm down in WV. It's a lovely drive, especially when the Ohio River is high and looks like liquid glass in the spring sunshine. It's also on the top of one of the many ridges in the area, and it's quite a bit of fun to drive those roads in my little red sportscoupe. And I remembered how different it was living in the Netherlands where everything is flat, flat, flat with endless horizons--sort of like our American Midwest. I also remembered how I felt slightly nervous in that environment, a bit insecure and 'out in the open'. Someone from Ft. Wayne, IN once told me that she'd found that folks from flatlands didn't feel uncomfortable in mountains, but folks raised in the mountains tended to miss them when in flatlands. It recalled for me phrases like, "nestled in the valley" and "tucked into a hollow". I wonder if we 'hill people' feel comforted by the idea of being nestled and tucked, a little like being held in the palm of a very large and safe hand--if there is danger, we are protected from it by the big surrounding hills. Is that why I'm a bit nervous when out I find myself in a flat landscape? Or are my eyes/brain feeling bored by the unrelieved flatness? (I don't think so, as there's plenty of houses/trees/wildlife to see). Just an interesting train of thought, ruminating on our internal programming.....
Someday I'll buy a replacement camera (I've been using the hubster's when I can steal it away) and get more photos up here. But for now, we'll have to settle for verbal imagery.
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