More about Sense of Place

No matter how hard we try to explain the differences between living in or near a metropolitan area versus living close to nature, the concept of this lifestyle and experience seems to be entirely incomprehensible to those not having lived it. A life fully immersed in the natural world – as is ours – is a life in which each moment, each event, is fully felt and savored. We don’t watch life pass by; we don’t just look at our environment – we feel our environment. Just as we are part of our environment, that natural-world environment brings us peace, provides serenity, and becomes part of who we are.

Our current environment is filled with peace, quiet, starry nights, and birdsong. That’s what fills us up every day. We feel peaceful, quiet, starry, and full of song. Inflicting threatening objects such as towering very-high voltage transmission lines or industrial wind turbines onto this natural world would make us feel threatened every moment of every day. From those living near high-voltage power lines, I’ve been told they experience headaches and excessive fatigue. The lines sound like very loud sizzling bacon. Residents can’t touch a fence unless it’s grounded or they would get a huge jolt of electricity. They were told that the uncoated cables are high to avoid “frying” whatever is below. Our peaceful, natural surroundings would feel unceasingly threatening, both to ourselves and the wildlife with whom we gratefully share it.

Attempts to explain this concept resulted in the heartfelt message shared in this website on the Sense of Place page, which has been embraced by members of our coalition and community.

Attempts at Relocation or Acceptance

Sense of place is relevant not only for high-voltage transmission lines, but also for industrial wind turbines, solar installations, or anything else that spoils our views and the natural peace and quiet. Do you know that there are actually companies who coach corporations on how to deal with residents’ sense of place? There’s a profession dedicated to wresting people from their homes or getting past their objections to having their space invaded by unwanted permanent disruptions that don’t benefit them. There are documents about how to psych us out when we don’t want to be displaced, to move from our homes, or to be encroached upon by noisy, towering constructions that not only disrupt our way of life and peace of mind, but also can be physiologically destructive to ourselves and our livestock and pets as well as the wildlife we treasure in our natural surroundings.

Research has brought to light that articles addressing residents’ reluctance to be relocated or to accept an invasion of looming, hazardous foreign objects into their living space include explanations of, and advice on working around, the community’s “sense of place”. It is understood that communities in a natural environment, such as ours here, maintain a stronger sense of place, and more strongly and vociferously object to its invasion or destruction.

Rural residents live where they are because they find peace in the solitude, quiet, and connection with nature. We just want outsiders to leave us alone.