Coming back to Kansas is always a great reminder of WHY I’m Rural by Choice…
By Erika Nelson | Rural by choice becauseā¦
I spent a week in Chicago doing a series of lectures, a little family time, and gathering yet more stories from the road. These visits are usually bracketed by a meandering tour of byways and backroads, capturing new images of roadside attractions and self-made environments. I love visiting metro areas, to re-connect to ideas and innovation and a different mindset. My engagements are usually in the hearts of the beasts, full of people and public transporatation and neighborhood grocers. Afterwards, the way home is always a time to reflect on the similarities and differences of place…
The hearts of major metro areas have some of the same issues and perks that rural communities do – they have neighborhoods, where people know each other. They have local grocery stores, that cater to the needs of that neighborhood. They keep an eye out for the people around them, in their neighborhoods. The commute for an urbanite can be the exact same, time-wise, as a ruralite, although the distance covered may be massively different. I love the city. But, I love, even more, to come home to my tiny rural town in the middle of Kansas.
I can feel my lungs open up, my eyes expand to take in the horizon, my tires grip the road in some of the most amazingly drive-able drives around. As I pass through other familiar small towns along the route, I re-mark on my mental map the places to eat, the grocery store with the artisan blue cheese in its deli case, the place to go on Thursdays for prime rib. I visit old friends that serve as place-markers for their towns (Big Ball of Twine, I’m talkin’ about you!). I top a rise in the evening and see the horizon ablaze with prairie fires (controlled), creating dramatic sky-scapes that are lit from within.
I arrive at my house to find that I’d left the keys in the front door, and that the UPS man dropped off packages, saw them there the next day, and put them in a covered place so they wouldn’t get rained on, and left a note. I caught up on emails, containing an amazing amount of thoughtful and progressive and culture-changing projects, coming out of the love of place. I made out a new list of business activities and deadlines for the week, then grilled some bison burgers that came from a ranch just a half-hour’s drive North of here, that I purchased from my own local meat market.
I was again amazed at the life you can build here, now. Technology and connection (and some amazing roads!) mean that geography is no longer a limit. Yes, there are some challenges and isolations that happen out here, but they are no greater of an obstacle than our urban counterparts have to overcome in their own lives. Isolation is just as common when your neighbor shares a wall, rather than being separated by a field of waving wheat. And connection is just as common, weather your local coffeeshop is located near your subway stop, or next to the Co-Op. I’m so glad to have the best of both worlds, and to have chosen a home here in Lucas Kansas.
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