The Great Northwest

When I posted my pictures of Seville at a week old, I included a nursing picture. I thought it was a really sweet picture. Her head is covering anything "significant," and it's not like breastfeeding is sexual or pornographic anyway. I wanted to include that picture and memory in my collection of sweet moments. It is, afterall, what I spend a huge amount of time doing with her (about 8 hours a day at the time), and a significant part of the wondrous and beautiful miracle of motherhood. It's very goddess-like, being able to provide absolutely everything this little person needs, right from your own body.

Anyway, one of the responses I got was from my Manhattan-residing brother-in-law. "Aaugh! I didn't need to see that! You Westerners!" He didn't say this to me, of course, but I heard about it. It was all in good fun, and I laughed (nevertheless, it did contribute to the eventual removal of the photo from the online album).

The Northwest is a funny place. I'm proud of most things that are characteristic of Portland. For example, I recently learned that Portland has twice the number of women doing natural births than most other places. Bravo! (I was planning a natural birth, but had an emergency cesarean birth. I hope and pray I have no complications next time and can do it then). One can also note that the Northwest is particularly prone to cool outdoor activities. I mean, we have three R.E.I.s in the Portland Metro area alone. And our whole sense of fashion reflects our outdoorsiness. We don Keens and Merrels as everyday wear. Show up in all-black New York City in a fleece vest, Columbia Sportswear pants and Chaco sandals and you'd stick out like a sore thumb (sore from rockclimbing, probably. ha ha). In Portland people go to the theater in that kindof gettup.

The question on my mind is this: Am I at home in the northwest because my personality naturally leans toward these things? Or do I lean toward these things because I live in the northwest and am influenced by the sociopolitical mood here?

A couple weeks ago Jared and I went hiking in Forest Park -- a very Portland thing to do. While hiking we saw graffiti on one of the trail fences. Now, you see graffiti all over the country. But THIS graffiti said... get this... "Mother Earth Feeds You." --! This is what a good-for-nothing subversive outcast troublemaker in Portland graffitis. "Mother Earth Feeds You" (sucka). I can just see him in his bandana made of hemp, spray paint made of renewable recycled paint, and hiking boots, painting his message to the world. "That'll show them! Stick it to the man!!" he must have been saying to himself.

so funny.

I think the punk kid is influenced by living here. Here is someone who, if born and raised in L.A. would have written "Black Gangsta Disciple." This is the northwest's version of a punk kid.