Your choice of a US State to live

If you had to choose a US State to live, what state would you choose and why?

List your home state, but don't use that state as a choice.

My home state is Pennsylvania.
Choice of an alternate state: Virginia . I love the mountains and the many horse farms. It is also a friendly place.

I live in Texas, so I can't choose that one. Besides, it's a red state. Dave and his new family started out in New York State, and though he and Lyn have moved to NJ to be closer to their work, they are still only a few miles from NYC.

And I have to say, I think New Jersey has gotten a bad rap. There are some really beautiful places there, especially as you get closer to Pennsylvania. So either of those states.

I also love Florida, having spent many a vacation there. It's a hard choice, but I guess I will go with New York State - Hudson Valley, near Middletown/Bloomingburg, where Jaycie's Popop lives, and where the kids got married.

Ann

I live in WA state. I love the cooler weather in the summers. I will pick Oregon state along the coast.

Altered

Dear Al,

I have mentally always been in an altered state, but physically, I live in central Florida. I would love to live and afford to live in the Florida Keys. Not the life style, but the lovely ocean and the primal, beginning of life vegetation. I get a little of that here where I live, along the narrow swamp river fingers.



There really is so much more. We are so much more. Funny how we settle.



Love,

Betty

I'm content here in Florida, too. I've been in all the states except Alaska and Maine. And many countries. Always glad to get home.

Al Stevens wrote:

I'm content here in Florida, too. I've been in all the states except Alaska and Maine. And many countries.a lways glad to get home.

How about the alligators and snakes?

Are you courageous enough to mention a state where you would not want to live? I hesitate to mention the one state where I would not want to live because I know some people there that I like and respect. It would certainly annoy them to say the least.

The state I have in mind where I would not want to live I view as the death state.

I suppose I will have to remain in a state of confusion.

I lived in Key West for three years. The beauty of the Keys is astounding, no question about that. It's funny the tricks the mind plays, though. It "felt" so far away and a death trap in hurricanes, that there was this underlying desire to "escape" from Key West. So, I did. Sometimes living in paradise doesn't seem the same as the fantasy of living in paradise.

That said, my favorite place was Boise, Idaho. But even a favorite place has its drawbacks. It was far from an ocean, though it had an ocean port. In winter, they had this "inversion" where the smoke and smog (fireplaces) would lay over the city with inhabitants gasping under it. You could escape by driving up the nearby mountains and breaking through to the crystal clean air. Beyond that, the winters were dry, so the cold was biting but not miserable. The summers were hot, but again not miserable, and one could escape always to cooler weather in the mountains.

In the spring, one could play tennis or golf outside in Boise by day and drive up the mountain to ski at night. The river ran through Boise, a real river. During its spring run and sometimes in lazy summer, employees in town would switch to "tubing gear" for lunch and tube down the river. One could bicycle endlessly. It had a real downtown and quaint restaurants and shops.

Mostly, though, the majesty of the mountains was overwhelming. Also, there were no disastrous weather issues, not even earthquakes. Occasionally, they had straight line winds that did some damage; but even that was rare. Fires were a concern in particularly dry times.

I used to drive to schools all across the state; and I would be humming along, "and I get paid for this; and I get paid for this" as I was awestruck by the mountains on one side, the ravines on the other, punctuated by the rivers and streams.

I forgot to add that I was never caught in a traffic jam in Idaho, not even on a holiday. There was enough space for everything and nothing was overcrowded. Probably changed by now. I understand they opened the borders to escapees from California after quite a debate. I was there in 1985.

Shelagh wrote:

I suppose I will have to remain in a state of confusion.

If you moved, you may wind up in another state of confusion.

That's right, Abe! Better to be confused here than there.

alice wrote:

Al Stevens wrote:

I'm content here in Florida, too. I've been in all the states except Alaska and Maine. And many countries.a lways glad to get home.

How about the alligators and snakes?

They like it too.

Al Stevens wrote:

alice wrote:

Al Stevens wrote:

I'm content here in Florida, too. I've been in all the states except Alaska and Maine. And many countries.a lways glad to get home.

How about the alligators and snakes?

They like it too.

Do you like them?

Yes. I like reptiles and all the earth's creatures, slimy and otherwise. Even some Republicans.

Bite your reptilian tongue!!

But, at the same time, please note that mine is firmly lodged in my cheek.

Ann

Al Stevens wrote:

Yes. I like reptiles and all the earth's creatures, slimy and otherwise. Even some Republicans.

Sarah Palin?

Al, I can't agree on the reptile thing, however I can agree liking some Republicans. "Forgive them for they know not what they do."

The aligators and snakes are not on every turn as the news might portray. They like the woods and the water where they lived before all the people from Michigan and Indiana and north to Canada came to complain about them. I may see one aligator a year, and the snakes I see are black indigo, a good snake that controls the rattlers and the rats. There is nothing to fear here from the wildlife if wild creatures are treated with the respect they deserve.



DK, I love the way you describe Boise, Idaho.



Back when I was nineteen and the magazine, Mother Earth News was a one page mailer that advertized land in Idaho for 100.00 an acre, I longed to go where people grew food and farmed small farms. Alas! My ex not only thought everything green was a weed and to be eradicated, was in love with the cleanness of corcrete. We lived in Arizona.



So, now that I live in this verdant state, (he does too, but on Fort Myers Beach)

I may be poor but the view is lovely and most anything I have a mind to grow, will.



I think I would be happy in Boise if it were not so dang cold. My bones revolt.



Abe,

I do not think that Florida is the "death state." Lots of people come and thaw out here after being frozen to the bones 'up north' year after year. I consider that thaw elongates their lives a good fifteen years. . .Like those toads that can be frozen and then thaw out and hop off as if no time had passed.



Most have a nice smile on their face and even when they start to tell you how they did it up north, they know they are happier here being able to feel their toes in the winters.



Love,

Betty

I hate Boise Idaho, my world famous Pancreatic surgeon moved there.
He wanted to slow down before he retired.

He took his llamas with him..
I miss him a whole big lot.



It must be a good place--he is very smart.

Betty,



I treat snakes with great respect--I stay far away from them.

I am respectful to bears also--didn't stop one of them from eating our food and scaring us half to death.

Dear Alice,

I find that respect is what every creature requires, including mankind, who gives out the least respect all around. You would think the biggest brained beings would have figured out what every other animal knows intrinsically. Perhaps respect has been evolutionalized out of mankind. That is a sorry state of affairs.



Love,

Betty

Things happened, I think, that led in that direction.

For instance - you belong to a group of hunter/gatherers who find nuts and berries plentiful, but animals scarce. Being omnivores, you choose to focus on moving around to where the animals are. Eventually you focus on hunting, and even later, on herding, so that you will have enough meat.

On the other hand, maybe your group figures out that the stalks of grain grow better if they are in good sunlight, so, the gatherers in your group, who have also figured out that the stalks grow from the kernels that form at the top, start planting the kernels in the open sunshine, and before you know it - you have a crop to harvest. So, you stalk out that bit of territory, and send the hunters out to find a bit of meat.

Now, in either case, it has been worked out for some time that it is the females who have the babies. That invariably means that they make the best gatherers, and so, the men tend to become the hunters, because they don't have babies to nurse.

So, some of the groups, based on their group experience, focus on hunting, and eventually herding, and others on gathering, and eventually planting.

OK. If your main food source comes from planting and harvesting, you do better if you stay in one place. If it comes from animals, you do better to follow the herds, and even after you control them, to go where the best grass is.

So, what qualities are best for survival if you rely on planting? Well, staying home, keeping the food supply protected and safe, and functioning cooperatively - as a group.

What if you rely on animals as your main food supply? What qualities help your survival? Moving around a lot, taking risks, and acting individually.

If you are a planter, you will come to respect the Earth as your "mother" who provides you with food, and that means women, the former gatherers, tend to become the leaders and, in time, the goddesses. Now, since the best traits for survival involve compliance, cooperation, and staying put, you will start to associate these superior qualities with females.

On the other hand, if you follow the herds, even after you learn to control them, you will value your males, who do the most hunting, since they don't have babies, and the females, because they do have babies, will slow you down, you, over time, will value the men and the hunters more. As herders, you will come to fear lightening and thunder, because they will spook your herds and make your job harder, so you will need to find a way to appease the thunder "gods." Since you live in the open, and probably on the plains, the same will go for the sun, and you might also, down the line, worship the sun as a god. And since, for survival, you need to be willing to take risks, and go out on your own to track down your food, then your gods will be gods who do those things. And since the herders are mostly men, then the good qualities, the qualities of the gods, will be assigned to the men.

So, for a long time, the planters, who stay in one place, start to form larger and larger groups, and build walls around their farms and villages, and make pottery and bricks, and because they need to keep count of their food supply, they will start to make little marks on clay or stones, to help them keep track. And eventually, they will realize that the little marks can stand for different sounds, or words. Their pottery will become more decorative once they have figured out how to have a bit of leisure time, and before long, they will develop what we call arts and crafts.

Now, back to those herders. The herds are starting to get scarce, because they don't have a concept of dwindling resources, and soon, they will have killed off most of the herd. Now, population is expanding by this time, and empty spaces are fewer and towns are closer together, so eventually, the herders will come upon the towns and cities, and see how good those people have things.

And, since the main tools they have developed are blades for spears, and knives, for killing animals, they are able to put those implements to a different use, killing people, and so, they take over towns and cities. A couple of things come into play here. One, these male leaders have learned to devalue women, because having babies means they cannot travel as much, and they have come to see aggressive, assertive behavior as necessary for survival, and since they (the men) have been doing the hunting, they see aggression as a positive male thing.

They notice that these towns are ruled by women. Well, that's not good. How can women be aggressive when all they do is slow things down by having babies. We can't have our men becoming wimpy and compliant. We get rid of the goddesses and put our gods in their place, right?

Some things do change. The aggressive men have to stay in one place a lot of the time, in order to protect the town, because, clearly, women can't do that, or we wouldn't have defeated them in the first place. So, some of the former hunters become warriors, and others take over the protection of the food supply, and before long, we have specialization, and a degree of compliance, and a slight rift between the warriors and the specialists who run the towns.

And our concepts of male and female become more and more connected to the traits that are most needed, and more and more of those desirable traits get attributed to the men, who have the power to control.

And then, after a long,long time. we move out of this agricultural world by making better and better tools and weapons. And we build stronger cities and bridges and we get further and further away from the earth and the animals and the feminine concepts that honor them as products of the earth mother.

Nobody in those early times intended to do anything bad or wrong. They were just trying to live in the worlds that they were able to perceive, and lost sight of those things that contradicted their sense of reality.

And that's the history of the "world according to Ms. J," as I used to tell my students.

Forgive me for prattling. Sometimes I miss being a teacher.

Ann

Thanks for the history lesson, Ann. You haven't lost your teaching traits.

The death state that I didn't mention was not Florida, although Florida has vengeful Republicans living there. My thought reference was Texas as a leader in the death penalty. Does it have something to do with the old west, i.e., throwing a rope over the tree branch and hanging the suspected law breaker with quick justice? The methods used for killing have changed, but it appears that the mentality has not changed all that much. I admit that my generalization does not allow for the exceptions.