The extent and condition of our property, and our choice of style in dwelling, create a powerful emblem of our identity and status.

Individualism and mobility are at the core of American identity

I read the landscape to help me through, to know what's come before me there, to find my footing in time.

In choosing where to live or vacation, we may be setting the stage for the play of ourselves, treating nature as prop.

Home is where we know - and are known - through accumulated experience.

How do we accurately evoke land we love? What should we even call the world we walk and drive through-scenery, landscape?

We are so habitually nostalgic by now that we anticipate looking back in the midst of enjoyment, look forward to watching the videos we're taking of our children even as we make them.