Where is your spiritual center?

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and don't say your navel. or worse. So, Gwen says that hers (right now) is Houston. Mine was Oakland, for a long time. Earthy, crunchy, working class, ethnically diverse, great and quirky and affordable restaurants, big city attitude but small town politics ... right now I'm without one, and it makes me feel kind of homeless.

So where is yours? and are you there, now?

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001

Answers

Pittsburgh, baby! So many bad things get said about this town, I feel I must refute them: 1. It stinks. (It does not, there are no more steel mills around to produce the mind-numbing stench) 2. There's nothing to do (Au contraire! Besides having about 300 muesems and a film school, there's also a million stupid things to do, like shop, and cool bars, and lots of hottie students to check out) 3. The city's populated by a bunch of old steelworkers (Well, ok, but there's nothing WRONG with that) and etcetera....

I've lived here all my life, and I can't imagine living anywhere else. Big enough to matter, but small enough to not attract annoying urban chic people like Carrie from Sex and the City.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001


Leucadia, California. The beach there is wonderful. The brown sandy cliffs echoing the sound of the surf and the cool breeze blowing across the warm water. The water always seems so much cleared than anywhere else on the coast. The solitude to sort through the days events undisturbed by much more than the cry of the seagulls and bark of an occasional dog chasing the gulls to no avail. And the chicks with their high cut tight suits with georgeously tanned bodies. And all us big strong husky surf dogs. The restaurants with all types of good food. The best Mexican food fer sher. Italian food. Chinese food. Thai. Greek(if you can call that food). Lots of room to skate board, bike, surf, sail, wind surf, blade. Lots of really nice people. My folks are still there as are all my sibs and old girlfriends. All my pets are in the front yard and I remember them all. And all the great lookin' chicks in their tight high cut bathing suits. Did I memtion that already? Such a great place. Old Surf Punk

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001

Unfortunately, Houston sucks the spirit out of me. And Galveston totally wrecks me.

So far, Atlanta is my best place. But, I think Savannah might be pulling me, and I'm going to give Asheville, NC a try, too.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001


Right now, it is San Francisco... I love the fog, the beach, the mild weather. I love being surrounded by water. And, yes, it is a pain in the ass to drive (hence, I sold my car and walk or take the disgusting bus everywhere), but I am still charmed by MOST of what it has to offer... and make an effort to get out and enjoy it all. While I work downtown, my "spiritual center" actually is where I live - a little off the beaten path in a quiet little apt by some parks and nice, funky, mixed neighborhoods... I create downtime in which I can enjoy my solitude, the quiet, the little space that is mine. I guess I like having pretty much everything - from urban excess to solitary beaches.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001

Hey, James!!! I'm Greek. I resent that. Hmph. Actually, I don't like Greek food all that much, either. :-)

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001


I try to take my "spiritual center" with me... otherwise, it'd've gotten sucked dry in LA, trampled in NYC, forgotten in Philly....

I'm a Cancer, so the ocean always makes me feel better. I don't think I could live inland unless it was near a big lake/body of water. Rivers'll work in a pinch, but I crave salt water and sand.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001


Houston. Definitely. Robyn do you live in the loop? Most people I know that do not, don't consider Houston all that. Most people I know who do, do. Especially those who live close to downtown.

I don't live near downtown anymore, but work in the Montrose and hang out in the loop. I can't help it

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001


I'm a Scorpio, but I don't feel any huge spiritual tug from bodies of water, and I grew up in southern Louisiana just 30 minutes from Lake Ponchartrain and 30 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico. One thing I always liked about the beach - there is nothing that relaxes me more completely than to lie on the beach at Pass Christian. But then I found that the mountains of Colorado inspire and energize me better than almost anything or any other place. My two favorite places in Colorado are Summit Lake on Mount Evans and the Great Sand Dunes National Monument.

You know what? Come to think of it, I do like the water, because it just occured to me that I loved Bar Harbor, Maine, which is on the ocean, and I do like San Francisco. So I guess it's the combination of water and hilly/mountainous surrounding countryside (as opposed to the flatness around the Gulf). San Francisco is a great place, but it is SO incredibly crowded there. :-(

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001


Me and my husband are both Scorpions and I'm not sure if we've found our spiritual center yet. On the one hand, I will say we miss Cambridge, England (where both lived and met) and Scotland (where we honeymooned) as if they were our homelands but on the other hand, who doesn't miss vacation spots? Boston is defintely not our S.C. but we have a sneaking suspician that San Francisco with Mitchell's ice cream might be very soon.

On second thought, Ann Arbor is my spiritual center and I haven't been back since graduation.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2001


SW Ontario for me, is home. Even though I've lived in Toronto for 10 years or so, I still feel drawn to where I grew up, have family etc. There's nothing really to recommend it in aesthetic terms (flat farmland, for the most part), except that it's warmer than most of Canada and a good chunk of the US, and that parts of it (like Point Pelee and Pelee Island) have unique ecosystems.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001


Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

However, I have also given my heart to Chicago, Melbourne, the Thousand Islands area of Ontario/New York, and Pelee Island. It's all about being near or surrounded by water. I don't even want to say how much Pelee has going for it because too many people know about it already.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001


Whenever we get stressed out here, we head to South Padre. Most of it's undeveloped, so we go to some deserted part of it and just relax. It's become a yearly thing for us. In Michigan, it was Lake Michigan, although I'd have to say the saltwater really makes a difference.

Although I hated the beaches in L.A.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001


Letty, I was living in South Shore Harbor for awhile, and that's when I did most of my Houston time. When I was younger, in LaMarque, I spent quite a bit of time up in Montrose, and I practically lived at the Axiom when I was 16.

It's so hard to explain. Even though it's so hard to leave when I'm there, being there is very difficult for me and I can't quite seem to "get it together". I make very bad choices when I'm there. And then, when I am some place else, I look back and wonder who was living in my body while I was in Houston. I have zero self confidence when I'm there. I have family problems there. And I have great big godzilla sized men problems there.

And the Heat! My god, the Heat! :)

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001


Hmm. I dunno where mine is. I've lived in Boston for 6 years now, and a lot of things about this city make me happy. Periodically, I think about moving somewhere else just to see what it would be like, but I'm not really the uproot-myself-without-a-year-of-overplanning-and-obsessing type. I figure that I'm here until grad school ends, and that'll be in a couple of months.

So, my spiritual center remains a mystery. Even to me.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001


I take it with me wherever I move. It's my bedroom. I decorate it just so, and make it homey and inviting.

As far as physical locations that feel "right", London is the only place. (This boggles people who live there and hate it.) I don't get lost, I have a sense of purpose and direction when I'm there, and I have a good time doing the most mundane things because I feel, deep down, like I am meant to be there. I feel somewhat like that when I visit my mother--the feeling is "home".

When I lived in Winston-Salem, NC, the energy there was good, but it was not a good time of my life. I also had trouble earning a living--it was during the recession and PhD's were shaking tin cups on street corners. I worked three jobs to get by. If I had hated W-S on top of all that, I'd have never survived it, but W- S has a good vibe. (Downsides: it reeks of tobacco more often than not and if you have allergies, it's a big bowl full of pollen.)

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001



I'm changing my mind. I think my S.C. is in in the San Juan Islands-- Friday Harbor, Washington. My grandparents retired out there and when they died, they left the place to my mother. It's up on a cliff, above a bay, there's pine trees, bald eagles,orcas, seals on the rocks at low-tide and you can see the stars at night. Plus Victoria, Vancouver is really close. I love the Pacific Northwest.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I'd say probably Orange County, CA. My parents live there and I still refer to it as home.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Deidre, many, many moons ago...when I was in the military, I was stuck at Alamed waiting for an overseas flight for a week and I loved Oakland. Wow, what a difference from San Fran. Frisco seemed cold, everyone in a hurry, but Oakland was more like a big, small town. People were friendly, even to guys with military haircuts, the food was great and the nightlife was something to remember. And you're right, it was much more diverse in every way in it's outlook. After two nights on North Beach and the titty bars...it was over the bridge for me. I mean OBVIOUS silicon is only interesting when it's a novelty.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Exactly. San Francisco is another world; it's kind of like Brooklyn vs. Manhattan, for you east coasties. I used to scan my closet desperately on the days business called me to SF; fashion there was 10 years ahead of Oakland. At least. Also, people have attitude in Oakland, and if you fuck with them, they'll knife you. That's pretty honest. In SF, people have attitude, and if you fuck with them, they hit the panic button on the keychain for their SUV and try to burst your eardrums. Not as impressive. Hmmm, how else can I diss San Francisco? It used to be more expensive than Oaklandia, but now I fear the East Bay has caught up ... Bubba, do you remember going to a place called Eli's Mile High Club? I imagine it was around, a million years ago ... it's a landmark dive under the 880 (Nimitz Fwy) not far from some great bbq places. Rough neighborhood, great jazz. Odds are, no silicone. (or silicones. sic.)

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Deidre, this was in the late 60's and Ilm sorry..but I don't remember any of the names of the joints I went to, but I DO remember the bbq, the music, the ATMOSPHERE. Rough? Well it could be, but the air of real excitement was undenieable. It was real. Frisco was not. I still remember the smell of some places in Oakland with all the cooking going on and the music and the laughter spilling out on the street. Wonderful. Being 22 didn't hurt either, if you know what I mean.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Uh oh... never, EVER call San Francisco - Frisco. Ever. Now when y'all diss SF, you know better.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Marisa, you are completely right, I know ... but, c'mon: isn't there just the tiniest bit of illicit joy in calling it by it's ultra-uncool nickname? okay, okay. nails on a chalkboard, I know. Bubba, by the way: can we start a thread called "how the hell old are you, anyway?" shit. it's killing my fantasy life to know that my bad boy texan is, like, 20 years older than me.

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2001

54 (he creaks as he types)

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2001

Ditto on the "Frisco." Every time I hear that, I think of this great mountain town up I-70 from here: Frisco, Colorado. But really the only person I know who routinely calls San Francisco "Frisco" is one of my best friends. She'll say something about "Frisco" and I'll tell her they hate that name. Her defense is always, "Hey! I used to LIVE in California!" That's when I have to remind her she spent the first 21 years of her life in El Segundo and that doesn't qualify her as an expert on northern Californian culture. :-)

(Right around then, she reminds me she was a "surfer chick," so I have to ask her if she'd like to "shoot the tube" with me. She usually slugs me in the arm. I can only tease her that way because she's a friend.)

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2001


Boy. I think of Oakland a lot differently then I used to now. I was born there but I’ve never spent any real time there. I always thought it was the place you drove fast through in hopes of not being shot. Of course, I feel that way about large parts of Sacramento too (where I currently live).

I've had this reoccurring dream that I drive into this town and it is home. I don't mean I live there. It's just home. I feel like you do when you've gone away on business for a week or two and you step through the door of your house and everything is familiar and friendly after being surrounded by strangers and the unfamiliar. Only in this place I feel like that all the time. Every time I wake up. Every time I drive through town. Unfortunately this dream comes with little to no clues about where in the hell it is. I suppose if I got out Sacramento every once in a while I’d have better luck finding it.

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2001


Side note re: city nicknames that make me wince. When people call Boston "Beantown", I feel hostile.

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2001

sort of related, but not quite -- all New Jersey jokes make me hostile, especially the brilliantly fresh and witty habit of responding "Oh? Which exit?" when told that I lived in NJ. I mean, do people think that New Jerseyites are UNAWARE of the unrivalled charm of their home state? Do they think that our hair grows that high WITHOUT the influence of a very, very chemically altered environment? Did THEY submit to the license plate board the phrase "the NJ Turnpike: 20 smells in 20 miles" as an alternate to the insipid and false "The Garden State"?

well, travis, I guess you are re-thinking re-thinking Oakland now, huh? Now that you can see my standards. No, trust me. Oakland is the center of the universe. Just don't go out after dark.

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2001


Paul. It's pronounced El Suck-undo. Tell her that. What Sangabriel surfvatos called it. james

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2001

wherever Patrick is...right now...Dallas.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2001

Pittsburgh...it's clean the ppl are SO nice and it has lots of good food places and cool shops (the vintage store that sells knee socks with the tacky sunset sillouetts of ppl kissing from the 70's)but unfortunatly i havent been there for almost 3 yrs and i'm feeling empty. :P i should go soon...it's only an 1 1/2 hmmmmmmmm

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2001

I'm starting to think that there may be a city out there that's better for me than Houston. I don't know what it could be, though.

I want to see Seattle. It's always sounded attractive. (Before Pearl Jam, too.)

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001


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