High on the Hog

To my mind, there are three types of living.

There's city life, where you live within a city's limits, and if you actually have a house, your yard is small or non-existent, townhouses are popular, and apartments are even more popular. People think nothing of paying exorbitant rent prices for even the most tiny dwellings and become adept at maximizing the space they do have. Streets are numbered and seem to make sense. People take their kids to parks because they don't own swing sets and jungle gyms, and simply can't imagine doing anything else. Distance is measured in blocks, and few people own or have a need for cars. Public transportation is not only handy, but also cost effective. You might have a small patio or balcony where you can do some container gardening if you're so inclined, but in general there's no need since everything you need can be found at little markets and trendy shops and is within a few minutes' walk or just a quick subway stop away and is conveniently prepared for you. Meeting people somewhere isn't really a problem- everyone can get there because there's always a cab, a train, the bus- transportation is simply not an issue. Culture is also readily available in the form of museums and numerous forms of performing arts. High on the hog may mean having a penthouse condo or a rent controlled apartment with a park view.

There's also suburbia, where you live just outside a city, near enough to commute for work, but far enough to feel safe and own a house. Typically, there are developments with streets named after the trees they cut down to plant the houses- Elm and Oak and Maple come to mind, and the houses all look very similar to one another and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase. The yards look spacious but are carefully set up and are more of an optical illusion than they are truly spacious and are landscaped professionally and everyone is careful to not break any homeowners' association rules. Distance is measured in minutes, as in "I'm only forty minutes outside the city", and while many people own cars, they'll still take the train if they need to travel into said city because once they get there parking and driving is a hassle. People shop in malls and big box stores and have all at once begun jumping on the green bandwagon. Children's activities are scheduled and planned out so that you don't feel as if they are missing any of the opportunities they'd have if they were living in the city, and private schools are common. High on the hog could mean owning a boat and a lake house or perhaps having a BMW or Mercedes in your three car garage.

Then there's country living. This is known to most people as rural America, but to me, it's just home. Here, apartments are hard to find- not because they're so much in demand that you have to scramble to get one, but because people simply don't make them. Nearly everyone here lives in a house or similar single family dwelling. We measure our land in acreage and our distance in miles. In the actual town, the streets are named things like Mill, Schoolhouse, Railroad, Park or Main after things that were or are on those streets when the town was first settled to tell people something useful. Outside of town, the roads are pretty much all state or county routes, and are simply numbered. People own livestock whether they're zoned for agriculture or not, children ride the bus to school for well over half an hour each way, and people garden more out of necessity than any burning desire to save the planet. There is no public transportation to speak of, and everyone relies heavily on their vehicles. Following a tractor for miles is not out of the ordinary, and children generally don't have a lot of activities planned because they're busy playing in the trees or fishing or riding their bicycles. Living high on the hog here means having several actual hogs and feeding them all summer and your family with them all winter.

I used to swear up and down that as soon as I was of age, I was moving out of the forest I was raised in, and into the biggest city I could think of. That sounds a little extreme, but with the exception of a state highway that gets what seems like a fair amount of traffic to us country folk, my house is literally surrounded by a forest. As a teenager, I lamented the fact that while there were plenty of chores and walks and berries and animals and a person was only bored if they chose to be, there was nothing to do. Nothing exciting ever happened, no one new ever came to town, and if a person did manage to find something to get themselves into trouble with, there was no way to get away with it, since everyone knew whose child you were.

New York City was always only a four hour drive from my home, but it was light years away from my lifestyle. It still is, since life happened and I never did move to the city. Now, after visits and research and self reflection, I know that while I love the city for its action and culture and opportunities, I also couldn't make it my permanent home. I need wide open spaces and room to breathe and think. I need to have the ability to come home with a variety of plants and animals, and to be able to look out any window in my rambling old farmhouse and know that whatever I see is mine.