Place

Place is simple and complicated (Cresswell, 1). Through our discussions in class, and after the readings we have found that place is everything. That is why it is so simple, yet so complicated.  It is different for each of us. Place is where I am right now, and it is also a place where my mind is at, or how my mind is thinking. Narrative shapes our understandings of place because we relate place to certain experiences. I don’t eat at Sonny’s BBQ, because of an unfortunate accident involving my stomach. Sonny’s BBQ is a place I relate bad food to, whereas someone else might see that fat guy and a pig and relate it to some of the best BBQ they have ever had because of their past experience. I like how Cresswell explains space and place. I really grasped the idea when Cresswell said, “If we think of space as which allows movement, then place is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be transformed into place (pg.8).” Understanding space allows us to make it a place. The book says we relate space to outer space. I think we do that because we do not know how to grasp the complexities of outer space. If we knew exactly what was out there, then we could consider it a place. We inhabit place when we grasp the understanding of that place. When we can put a meaning or reflect to a certain feeling we have inhabited place. Place is different for everyone. America means land of the free to us, but to a middle eastern 20 something year old, America probably has an entire different meaning.