My Antonia

I just finished My Antonia by Willa Cather (about a week ago- and read The Help since then).  This is the second book I've read by Willa Cather.  Both are quite memorable.  Death Comes for the Archbishop was a motivating factor at one point to go to New Mexico for residency.

Willa Cather painted a picture so vivid of New Mexico that I could imagine where I would be going, though 100 years will make a difference in the landscape of a place.   Anyone who could inspire the average person to want to visit Nebraska deserves a reward.  I see that as Willa Cather's strength in writing.  She takes a mundane place, a mundane story (who really cares that much about the immigrants who settled in Nebraska), and paints a picture so beautifully that you are right there with her.  Reading her books is as fascinating as traveling to Fiji or Timbuktu.

In the end, I pause to wonder if our desire to travel to see new places is more about an innate desire to understand history, the people behind it, and purpose of place than to travel to the far ends of the earth.   I find that after reading My Antonia, I am more interested in the Norwegian immigrants who settled Minnesota, as described in Giants of the Earth.  In fact, I am more interested in my neighbors, those who have been here for generations- perhaps descending from those who first settled here, and those who have moved here- whose stories are different.

Once I feared having children, because I loved to travel, and traveling is hard with children.  I wanted to see all the people in the world, and see all the landscapes to be found.  I am finding that people right next door are as interesting as those in far countries I've visited.  And as far as connection to the earth- well, Nature still exists, in fact, quite abundantly, here in Minnesota, and nearby.  Those aspects of traveling that I loved before, connection to people and place, are still assessable to me now,  and reading books by Willa Cather, Wallace Stegner, and Wendall Barry are a conduit that helps put the pieces together in my head.