I've always been curious and befuddled by Michigan, though I've never been able to articulate why. I remain perplexed despite having previously lived there for over eight years.
It's in the middle of a large continent, but it's surrounded by huge inland seas. It's culturally conservatively midwestern, yet also very coastal. Perhaps some of the trouble lies in that having grown up in the US, we're conditioned to stereotype coastal culture as liberal, stylish and worldly compared to an insulated, provincial continental interior.
So, life there is steeped in visuals of vast sand beaches, wooden ship steering wheels and lighthouses as home decor, sport boats, fishing vessels, giant ore tankers, gulls, huge sand dunes covered with beach grass and covering ghost forests, and ever-present horizons of open sea. Now add to that a deep-running fondness for cozy pastel sweatshirts and flannel, fleece slippers, an ingrained deer-hunting culture revolving around bait piles, big, square, American-made minivans and trucks, and a decent peppering of conservative religiosity, and you have a unique culture I've only ever seen in Michigan. Occasional whiffs of preppy looks or aspirations remind me of New England, though perhaps only a movie version of New England... Of course stereotypes never hold up upon any kind of examination, but for that matter neither do most people's dearly held self-identity.
On the surface, none of the above geographic or cultural elements should seem to be at odds with another (and likely match quite perfectly in the mind of any given reader); nevertheless, every time I go back I have to adjust my mental map. I can't shake my surprise that there are all those huge seas all around me there.
3 comments:
How do I fit? I am from the great inland coast afterall.
Mark-
It is an interesting set of questions you bring up. Why are inland areas perceived as more conservative than the metropolitan areas bordering the various waterways? How much of that generalization is actually true? Aren't some of the traditional views really a means of survival (hopefully)?
It makes me wonder how much of culture and attitudes are based on one's surroundings. Access to international trade & travel opens people to new ways of looking at the world and new tools to help out.
More generally, one also thinks about how much life is simply the result of survival, surroundings, and more importantly spirit. When I look out onto the water, whether it is a fast moving muddy river (st. lou) or waves crashing in on the Oregon coastline, I connect to that thing that is bigger than just survival.
CW-
My opinion is that the generalization of inland areas being more conservative has a vague truth to it, but you could totally drown in all of the exceptions...
I think your point about access to international trade making a given place more receptive to new ideas (as much as that describes progressiveness) does the most to explain it. That's also probably why you can't make the generalization like you could 100 years ago. Trade no longer relies on ships like it once did.
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