For me, there have always been only a few and specific "meaningful places" and I feel more-or-less out of it and adrift anywhere else.
Where I live now and the surrounding area is meaningful; and also where I used to live in the South West - Devon (although I haven't visited there for a very long time) and Somerset.
Outside these, not many. London, the South East, and pretty much all of the Midlands - except the Welsh border counties (eg Herefordshire, Shropshire) - leave me decidedly cool.
I find parts of the Scottish side of the Borders to be very magical, and I used to find Edinburgh meaningful, but not for a long time now. And I never found Glasgow meaningful, which was why my time living there made so little an impression.
Keswick is a favourite meaningful place, and Stratford upon Avon another.
The first time I went to Norwich I was very taken by it; but later visits did not confirm this. However, I was very taken by Ely (I've been three times, now) and much of rural fenland Cambridgeshire - but not Cambridge itself.
Oxford, I used to find meaningful, and visited many times across 50 years - but I also found that the magic of the place was progressively fading with every repeat visit. I shall be revisiting soon, and will be curious to see how it is faring...
The point of all this - is that experience has taught me that there is something objective about whether a place or area is meaningful to me. It's not something I can "manufacture" by will power.
Places that are "theoretically right" for me, and which I strove to find meaningful - can stubbornly resist; and remain disenchanted (Glasgow, Cambridge, for instance).
While, on the other side, I have also been surprised at how some places grabbed me - Stratford, for instance, I fully expected to find too much of a "tourist trap" yet I was actually bowled-over, and have had many holidays there.
The reason and significance?
I think it has something to do with our personal destiny....
For reasons we probably will never know, I think we get some kind of inner spiritual guidance - subtle, but decisive and strong - about where we ought to be spending our time - and where Not.
1 comment:
That's very interesting. I would love to read a much more detailed description of these places' effect on you, although I understand you probably don't have the time or inclination. And I'm always pleased to hear that different places in the UK DO have different character, since my fear of a great grey globalized conurbation is so strong.
My own efforts to convey what different places mean to me are so particular that I despair of them making any sense to anybody else.
I have sometimes found myself taking a significant detour because I don't want to pass through a particular street or area-- only because of its emotional effect, its atmosphere.
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