Why Here?

I didn’t choose to live here. And if I had the chance to choose, I probably wouldn’t choose this place. I have no particular averison to El Paso, but it’s not my ideal home. There are other places in this country that I would much rather be. This has me thinking: why do we settle where we do?

I know for most people it has to do with proximity: proximity to home, proximity to family, proximity to the only worlds we know. But for others who don’t limit themselves, what is the motivation to choose one place over another?

In truth most of us could live anywhere in the country (or outside of it for that matter) that we wanted. What makes one choice better than another? What makes that man choose the house in the country surrounded by hills where the nearest neighbor is not really near at all? What makes that family choose that little spot in the desert where there is nothing visible except the road leading away?

Some things I understand. I know why people choose to live in New York City. I know why they like LA. What I don’t understand is why we gravitate towards these out-of-the-way places that don’t make sense. Why would someone choose to live in the desert where there is no anything: phone, cell phone, Internet, cable etc.? The same could be said of the hill country. Some places seem like they would be more miserable than anything else. So why do we keep ourselves trapped there?

I know there are a lot of rhetorical questions here, and I’m not sure I’m really even looking for answers. I don’t know that any explanation will adequately explain why we choose to limit ourselves when it comes to a homestead.

Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again.” What if you didn’t want to?

---