The Urban Pantheist

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This seems like a good opportunity to bring up the rural nature lover paradox which, roughly stated is: "People who love nature move there and ruin it." Pretty good comments section in the post in the link above, taking me to task and offering alternatives. Worth a read, especially if you feel like disputing the paradox.

As for me, well I've defined myself in a very deep way as "Urban" since 1998 or so. But at this point in my life, it would make things much easier on me if I had a bit of land to run the dogs. It would also make me happy to have a place to keep a composter, and a place to sit and watch the seasons pass from a lawn chair, and maybe even some chickens to provide some eggs for our breakfast. I actually spent the first 7 years of my life in the wooded hills of Connecticut (it's not all suburban NYC) and feel more at home in the forest than almost any other place--I need trees around me.

On the other hand I love the fact that I live in a city, and that exciting cultural things are happening all around me. I don't take advantage of them nearly enough, but they are happening, and when I want to partake in them, I have many to choose from. I can buy a coffee with my bank card within walking distance of my home 24 hours a day, and I can walk to my choice of six or seven bars, four grocery stores, a yoga place, a puppet theater, or a ceramics studito (none of the latter I've actually been to).

Our compromise appears to be the outer, Southwestern part of Portland Oregon. For the price of our little Brookline condo we can get a small house with a big yard, with money left over for home improvements. "The city" would be a few miles northeast, full of all the things a city offers. Forest Park, a monstrous rainforest, pokes into the heart of the city itself, actually reducing the city's heat island effect and providing a nearby source of spirit-restoring trees. We're at least two years away from this major change, as Alexis wants to pursue a career move and associated school program, and the thought of it terrifies and excites me.

People who love Nature (in my most optimistic moments I imagine that this includes a majority of people) of course like to be surrounded by it. Often nature lovers are repelled by cities, and take effort to instead live in the countryside or surrounded by wilderness.

But living outside of the city causes a greater environmental impact: Trees must be cut down, roads must be built, and resources are sent out through diffuse networks. Rural people use more energy heating and cooling their homes, getting to and from work as well as running simple errands. As the population increases, whole non-urban communities are created, paving over wilderness and paving the way for more cars, more houses, more development.

In order to live where you are surrounded by natural beauty, one must participate in a system (development of rural areas) that is slowly and surely destroying that beauty.

Discuss.