The meaning of places

We try to assign meaning to everything.

We give value to objects. Things that belong to us, things that we possess. That value depends on what we do with them, what we did in the past, or where or who those objects came from. Like the English author William Ralph said, the wise man is the one that knows the relative value of things. But what happens to places? What kind of value can a place have? What does make a place important? Is it its visual characteristics? Perhaps the elements located in that place?

Places are different. We associate places with events that happened there. On some of them nothing important ever happened. There are places where you pass by everyday that never catch your attention. Then something happens there, one day, and everything changes, like a weather vane that suddenly changes its orientation with a blow of wind. From that point, you never see that place in the same way. From that moment, everytime you're in that place you remember those events.

Everytime I'm in that place, I make a stop and close my eyes. Then images come to my mind. What I saw that day, what I felt. And everytime I do so, I realize what that place means for me.