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Photo: mariahfleming

Place is wherever you’re sitting, standing, lying down, wherever you are as you read this.

Place is the totality of feelings you have for where you are right now.

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Destination is how you imagined it would be before you got there.

Destination is how you would describe it to other people.

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Place has an inherent (if forgotten or unobserved) name and story.

Place is where people live, die, raise families, each with their own names and stories.

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Destination is how their names and stories and how their places’ names and stories are advertised.

Destinations are inhabited by “locals.”

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Place is defined by time, so the story of a place is never finished.

As place is defined by time, we can “return” to place in memories and dreams.

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Destinations exist outside of time, so their stories may be written in one sentence.

As destinations exist outside of time, they cannot be the setting for memory or dreams.

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Think about the word “birthplace.”

Think about the word “graveyard.”

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Compare this with the word “nationality.”

Compare this with the word “passport.”

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It’s easy to simultaneously inhabit place and destination; we do it every day on the internet.

It’s easy to simultaneously inhabit place and destination; we do it every day when we write.

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Wendell Berry said, “There are no unsacred places; / there are only sacred places / and desecrated places.”