Re: meeting of minds

James Campbell wrote:

>Kristian wrote:
>
>> from a very early age. But I'd really like to belong somewhere. I
>> envy people who can say with certainty, "I'm Danish" or "I'm
>> Filipino" or "I'm American" - I simply can't say this. But I CAN
>> say, "I'm Boreanesian"!
>
>This made me nod and smile. I wouldn't say I have an identity
>crisis, but having grown up in the South of England, with Northern,
>Scottish and Orcadian roots, I've often been unsure where 'home'
>is. Really, of course, it's where I am, but when I go to Scotland
>that feels like home too. What was most remarkable, though, was how
>much at home I felt when I visited the Jameldic homeland this year.
>
>[Explanation: Half my life ago, when Jameld was new to me, I sat
>down in the school library with a big atlas and tried to work out
>where this language could be from. I decided on a small area in
>Alsace, Eastern France, round the town of Wissembourg. I knew
>nothing of the town, or the country around it. I just sketched a
>map of the area into my homework diary, added a vague boundary and
>that was it. The whole thing just hung around at the back of my
>mind until last year, when I picked up a Michelin map of the area
>and decided it looked rather interesting: hilly, wooded and dotted
>with chateaux. Finally this summer I went there with some friends
>for a week, and it's stunning. Jammy.]
>
>Unlike any other place I'd visited on holiday (with the exception
>of certain bits of Scotland where I have "real" roots), this felt
>like home, part of me. I'm itching to go back.
Sounds familiar! Although I can't go visit Boreanesia since that
would entail land in the Philippine Sea, I have often seen things in
my travels that could have been related to, introduced by, or
borrowed by Boreanesians. For instance, when I saw those majestic
Bunya pines _Araucaria bidwillii_ in the Botanical gardens in
Brisbane, Australia, I thought that they look almost just like the
pagoda trees _Araucaria borealis_ of Boreanesia. Sometimes I see
people that physically resemble Boreanesians and I think, "Hey,
there's a Boreanesian!". When I saw the terraced-mountainscape with
coniferous trees in the mountains of Northern Luzon, Philippines, I
thought: Boreanesia! When I saw yams (or was it taro) planted in one
of these terraces, I thought: Boreanesia! When I saw the cliffed
landscape with coniferous trees around Gothenburg, Sweden, I
thought: Boreanesia! I itch to go back to all those places I have
visited.

Regards,
-Kristian- 8-)