I live in Portland Oregon. It's a very beautiful place. It's a big city, but there is lots of deep forest all around. Big waterfalls. Glacier peaked mountains. I live very close to a river where salmon, sturgeon, otters, and seabirds greet me.
It's a very unique place. You can be yourself here. But still, if you are too weird, like the bad kind of weird, people will avoid you.
Politically it's a place right now, unfortunately, of unrest. Many of our storefronts are vacant because of riots, and unchecked homelessness. Other cities send their worst homeless here. Our city gives out crack pipes and needles to the homeless, causing widespread crime, litter, and vandalism. No one voted for this. There's a lot of corruption. Bonds get passed for millions of dollars, but then nothing gets done, but the money vanishes. The homeless are allowed to do whatever they want, including theft and assault. It seems the city, county, and state care more about attracting and enabling homelessness and crime (they call it harm reduction) than they do for the actual citizens. This makes a very dangerous situation. It wasn't like this until about five years ago.
I remember the old Portland of just a few years ago. Portlandia very cleverly made fun of it. Low rent, beautiful scenery, friendly quirky people, street musicians, cafes with drinks named "The Art F*g". Quirky boutiques and neat street faires. Concerts in the park. You could go outside as a woman any time of day or night and be totally safe. But you know, slowly, I think we're making our way back there. But the city/county/state government has to change their methods. Other cities around us are thriving. But we are languishing.
But I seek out the forest. As often as I am able. Up in the high hills. Quiet solitude. Ferns, and trees and canyons. Some of the trees are fat enough to live inside. Under the old growth canopy, even on the hottest days, no sun reaches the soil below, where ferns, ivy, and mushrooms grow. On those hottest summer days, under the deepest canopy, it'll be only in the 60s or low 70s.
In the winter, during driving wind and rain, under that same deepest canopy, it is dry and safe. A lovely shelter, where one could even picnic, under cedar and maple.
Pretty birds everywhere.
The coast is not so far away, and that would blow your mind to see. So pure, wild, forested. Whales and sea lions everywhere. But that's another story.
