Ah, the wisdom of Johnny Depp. We can imagine Johnny’s saying the words in the title above (which quotation sites do attribute to him) in one of those Pirates of the Caribbean movies where the good guys must cross big expanses of ocean to fight with the bad guys or to find a safe haven for themselves. But can’t each of us imagine calling out–“Now, bring me that horizon”—as a way of living our lives? The origin of the word horizon is from a Greek word that means bound or define and is akin to the Latin word for boundary. Dictionaries remind us that one use of the term horizon relates to the limit of a person’s mental perception, experience, or interest.When people want to “broaden their horizons,” they want to broaden their “outlook, perspective, and perception.”

What determines how far out are our individual horizons? Someone said once that we all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.Personally, I’m glad we don’t all have the same horizon…because I like the variety of what all of us see “out there” in front of us. I like a miscellany of perspectives and perceptions and areas of interest among the people I know, the authors I read, the commentators I listen to. (more…)

All of us have some special location that speaks to our hearts. A field of corn as far as the eye can see. A mountain that draws our eyes upward. A beach or seashore where we gaze toward a far-distant horizon. A valley of wildflowers. An old homestead where even the footprint of an old structure stirs warm memories.

All of us, too, have had the experience of watching a place change in a way that destroys its specialness for us. A highway comes too close; toxic waste clogs a stream; developers cut off the top of a beautiful hill; smog obscures a distant vista. Something very important is lost to us. We feel sad.

Researchers in Australia assert that this is a new type of sadness. When parts of our landscape change in detrimental ways, we lose the sense of “home” that these locations provided us previously. A name has been coined for this phenomenon: solastalgia. Solastalgia comes from the root word that means comfort: solacium and from the root word that means pain: algia. Solastalgia is the condition when we long for a natural setting that is now changed forever. As one researcher put it, this is a form of homesickness we experience even while we are still “at home.” (more…)

Imagine this:

You are driving into a town in the Netherlands called Makkinga. There is a traffic sign that reads “Verkeersbordvrij,” which translates “free of traffic signs.” This means there are no stop signs, no road markings, no parking meters, no pedestrian crossings. There are no stopping restrictions nor even any lines painted on the streets.

Instead of traffic rules and signs in Makkinga, there is the idea that streets are shared by drivers and pedestrians on equal grounds. The assumption that drivers own the road is replaced by the assertion that everyone has the same access to the public space. The thought is that if drivers are going to have to pay attention to pedestrians and bicycle riders and other vehicles—with no help from traffic signals and road signs—they will slow down and be more alert. (more…)