Geography is four-dimensional

"Baby, you ain't kidding." --Last words of Bill, Kill Bill 2.

I agree with your overall point. But, I have been in America for these last 40 years. Yes, the country/culture/politics/etc have changed, but it's still very similar to the America you (and I) grew up with. May I suggest it's possible your preferences have changed more than has America? That would be totally fine--just food for thought.

Thanks for that. A small truth that can matter.

Cheers

Thinking that Books might share the same time dimension

I think of this often. Born in the UK, I have been living in Japan since 1988. I get asked on a daily basis, “Where are you from?”. I reply, “England, of the 1980s.” Because, I know, the country that I left at 21, is long gone. People try to engage me about topics, such as bands, which they associate with the UK but if they became famous after I left then they are alien to me.

Once, when I went back on holiday and the UK coins had changed many months before and on seeing and holding them for the first time I marvelled at the new designs. I noticed the cashier looked concerned. I mentioned this later to my brother who quipped, “She must have thought it was your first day out of prison!”. A reasonable explanation.

Recently, I noticed another example. If you note the location of ancient settlements across the UK there are areas where there few villages and places where they match up with the modern towns. If you overlay a map of historical forests you can see their huge extent across England. Obviously, towns were outside of these areas. You can’t understand ancient history based on the current geography. Ephesus now stands in dry valley, two thousand years ago it was a thriving port. The landscape of 1066 is different. There are many examples like this.

I've been in Los Angeles throughout that change. As they say, "The future ain't what it used to be."

Been thinking of this but with people.

And people change much faster.

I enjoy this thought experiment. Though I find that some places change a lot, and some change very little, over time. So I guess I don't agree 100% with "that place is long gone" as a default answer. It's fascinating to think about places that change a lot vs. a little either way! Thanks for your writing, as always.

The only constant in life is change" ~Heraclitus

An interesting perspective. I enjoy speaking with friends from all over and hearing how differently people experience the same places. Having lived in many areas across the U.S., I’ve noticed locals almost always talk about “the way it used to be” and can even become hostile toward newcomers, telling them to “go back where they came from,” because the place no longer matches the version they remember.

Our memories have a way of softening the past. We tend to remember the highlights while forgetting the daily frustrations and negative parts that came with it. It reminds me of the saying, “Today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.”

Love it !!! Yes !!! We ourselves are in the fourth dimention

This is beautifully said. I’ve noticed the same thing with companies, cities, families, industries, and even people. We often speak with confidence about something we knew well, but what we really know is a timestamped version of it.

“Where is bound to when” is the line that really lands. It explains why nostalgia can feel so true and still be misleading. We are not just remembering a place. We are remembering the place, the era, and the version of ourselves who lived there.

Maybe the honest phrase is not “I know that place,” but “I knew that place then.”

I met you at SXSW in a 4th dimension. It's been really neat watching you expand your you.

Thank you for the inspiration.

Great essay
I’m grateful for the places I’ve lived and visited
God bless you

Always loved your perspectives. Have to get caught up. “Hell Yeah or No” has shaped my life for many years now. I don’t think “hell” of course. :)

Keep on keepin on.
m

And you’ve change too. You can’t walk through the same river twice.

You have just made me feel more comfortable inside myself . . .
I agree . . Our experiences at at least four dimensional . . .
and
YOU ARE Awesome.
Thank you for sharing.
-g-

What a wonderful way to describe or envision geography as “when.” How true Derek, and thanks as always to hear from you. I’ve been on this list since you sold CD Baby, speaking of when.
Onward,
Michael

Derek? Oh yes, I know him. But I remember the version from 2008, not the man he is today.

Yes. There were several kids at my Australian high school whose parents had immigrated from Greece. These kids all had a similar experience when they visited Greece after High School or during university - the country their parents described didn't really exist anymore.

I had a similar experience when I returned to Australia in 2022 after having left in 1999. The country had changed so much. It was a huge shock. I had a similar shock with the UK. I lived in London from 99-03 then came back in 2019. So much change. So many assumptions challenged.

Of course part of the issue is we change as well. Maybe we never know ourselves outside time either?

As an English boy raised in America, my proper English accent always prompted guffaws when I went 'home.'

Derek
I have this feeling when I say I’m from Glasgow. Last time I lived there 1982!! I lived in London for 19 years. Last time I lived there 2001. I live in Boston now and I can tell someone exactly what’s it like to live in Boston.

It’s true that geography is a time related concept and the speed of change demands that we qualify our experiences in relation to time.

Best
Ian

Maybe there is a fifth dimension? Which is your own perception that is bound to be different from others

This is SO true and relevant and mirrors what a lot folks are expressing. The world is changing and too often not for the better. Thanks for continued inspiring and insightful thoughts.

"No man ever steps in the same river twice"~ Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BCE)

This is a very important topic, especially if you are involved in anything that touches other cultures. It also has a broader implication: we should always stay open-minded and avoid being too sure we are right about a lot of things.

My own perspective is that my background is Irish, but can I still really call myself Irish after more than 50 years away? My values and perspective have changed over time, even as I look back fondly on certain places. I would not go back there again because now I hear a completely different story, and I find it hard to believe it is true. When I talk to someone else, they say the same place is wonderful. I live in China now, and like you, Dereck, I often get asked about the pollution. I usually take photos of the river flowing through Beijing, with people fishing and swimming in it.

I love this Derek.

We had an amazing landscape gardener - Gordon Ford - who used to talk about gardens in four dimensions. He did native Australian gardens, with big rocks, and would design into the future ... he could see the garden in 5 & 10 & 20 years time.

The other thing he did which I loved was imagined lava flowing over the land and depositing rocks ... and that was how he would place his rocks.

He was 87 when he did our garden ... it was the last garden he did.

Thank you for bringing back that memory.

Hi Derek:
That is so true, but I would say maybe more than four dimensions. I lived in Western Kentucky until I was eight years old, and I kept the people, pictures, and sounds with me. I returned for a visit in my forties. Not only was the town different from time, but my perspective was way different. It turns out my memories were not so reliable. In most fundamental ways the town hadn't changed that much, but it was different because I changed. Areas that I remembered one way were different. The house I grew up in seemed much larger from the perspective of an eight year old, and hill out front wasn't nearly as steep as I remembered.

If we come back to a place years later and it looks and feels the same. Does that mean we have travelled back in time?

Got the feeling of going back in time when we visited Cuba in 2019. One of the most unique places we have been to because how things seemed stuck in the past. To use the internet as well you could only do it from parks. It was wonderful.

Having migrated several times in my own life, I can so relate.
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered," spoken by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Good thing time machines don't exist. We'd have a bunch of artists trying to push their latest Gregorian Chant vibes.

Well, in the South many of the virtues and values of "twenty, or even eighty or a hundred years ago" are still alive and vital. At least in Tennessee where I now reside, people are still very caring and solicitous in the best way possible. We relocated here from So. Calif. and couldn't believe how incredibly nice people were. Always ready to lend a hand in any way they can. We have a farm in Middle Tennessee and in some ways it's like the environment I grew up in back in the fifties and sixties. Teens actually greet you respectfully and kindly and we have experienced no 'ageism' discrimination. I would say it's not just WHEN, it's also WHERE, at least in terms of the United States.

I really long for the Bavarian state of Germany in the early 1980s. I served there in the army had two daughters born in the army hospital but we lived in the village away from the town and away from the army base and life was so wonderful. The last time that I was there that clean, pristine beautiful place was fraught with chaos, college students demonstrating graffiti everywhere people were not the same they were much more absorbed and worried about bringing their culture in. I really long for those days before. I look around the states and feel a similar push against our culture and we're not supposed to be offended or worried about that. Still miss it even if I'm not supposed to.

Very good observation, Derek. I appreciate your thoughts about it. I still remember CD Baby as it was when you were running it.

Derek,
I love this post. It reminds me of how family or friends not seen in a long time, can remember only the me from then. But I'm not that person anymore :-)
Steven

omg so true. i traveled around the world in 2019 and returned to the US right before the pandemic started in 2020. my wife and i talk often how that world we knew and saw in 2019 is long gone.

That's really amazing. I remember when I went off touring Europe on a bus. It was crazy. Each country had its own currency, so the bus had to stop at each country border for us to go to the exchange office and get the local currency. I bet things have changed since then.

When I was five years old, my family lived in Denmark, in a suburb north of Copenhagen. On a weekend, I would tell me my mom, "I'm going out for a walk." I didn't tell her where I was going. I didn't know, myself. I was just going to head out and wander around the neighborhood. I would return an hour or two later. This was 1965. Nobody at that time thought this was dangerous. I felt completely safe.

Interestingly, in all these years, Denmark has changed little. I went back to visit once, in my college years, but my sense is that the Denmark of today is quite similar to the Denmark of 1965. In this instance, the geography has stayed three dimensional.

My family and I spent 3 years traveling America in an RV to see what the country was like. We managed to visit 28 states. But now, two years after we've stopped traveling, I realize my perception of the states and areas we visited were determined largely upon our experiences there. We totaled both our RV AND our truck in Texas. We hated Texas. Had that not happened, maybe we love Texas. We absolutely loved visiting New Mexico, but if we had to actually live there, maybe our opinion is different.

Geography is definitely 4-dimensional.

Everything is situational perspective regardless of time. There are eras but even within that experience can be vastly different. I love life. I love the outdoors. Someone else may say get me out of this stinking fresh air. Lol

Brilliant! I can’t say I was aware of that, but sure am now.

Time is indelibly bound to space, place and person. As it should be.

Great thought-piece, Derek. 🙏

Derek, everything you write and say is so wise and thoughtful and such a pleasure to ponder. You are like a brilliant philosopher. Thank you.

Makes me a bit sad but it’s true. I just moved from the house I spent the last 11 years with my children. It was a home of life laughter pain and surprise but now they are gone to live their own lives. College and young adulting. (So fast). So we moved from Gardena house to a redondo beach condo. And to our second home in Thailand. Those are are 4 dimensions now. And time will change them all.

As a Navy guy & son of an Air Force guy, I have moved a lot & grown up living the truth you described.
Most recently, I've heard NativLang describe the rate of change in relation to languages (spoken & written).
Applicable proverbs:
You can never go home again.
It has ever been thus.
This too shall pass.
We're all dying, everything is a rate problem.

Love this Derek. I've felt this many times over, in many places in the world. It is a fascinating thing. And nostalgia tied to a place feels like its distant cousin.

May I suggest that the fifth dimension of geography is oneself - experiencing a place is a truly subjective experience, much like receiving communication. Everything is filtered through our own lens of perspective, emotion, and history.

If you’ve stayed in the one place for decades, you’re probably less likely to notice the changes to it. Because, I think, they happen gradually.

Hey DS --
It's true L.A. isn't the same as it was when you were tooling around in your red & white CDBABY mini. :^D
But it's good! You may remember me as the guy with the gay-themed "homo-pop" tunes that I first sold on CDBaby (2002). I'm still making music, and even got married on Boxing Day of '24 to my boyfriend of 8 years. We make music together now; I am exceptionally grateful.
It's always great to hear from you.
Cheers!

This is beautiful. Geography is indeed 4-dimensional. Traveling through space is perhaps hoping to travel through time as well :) Thank you for writing!

Derek
This is so true and really speaks to me. I have lived in many countries and cities, and the reality of places (their people and culture) changing is true too. It's nice to see this written and articulated in this simple manner. I will be guest teaching this month an 8th grade at the Austin Waldorf School, where my son goes; it will be his class. As I have lived in Cambodia and Thailand in SE Asia and Kiribati and PNG in the Pacific, their teacher has asked me to come spend an hour giving an intro. I am going to print your piece off and start the class by reading it.

Hope you are well,
Kindest regards,
Jeffrey

Perception and reality 🤷‍♂️. We actually only have now. Regardless of your location.

I know you are aware, change is a challenge for some humans to embrace.

Judgement of a past reality is almost always inaccurate due to change, so if / when you return to a location you knew before. Comparison resets your paradigm to a degree depending on your perceived judgement of any changes.

Being present is a challenge for some humans regardless of their location.

Appreciation of past and present can present challenges to the preference of the individual I think.

Comparison can be unfair or unbalanced because most humans only consider themselves and their point of view or opinion. This can vary greatly from those whose reality you have entered either temporarily or for an extended period of time. Their judgment is of equal value to yours, perhaps more so if you a visitor / observer. If you engage someone with a local perception and share your observation you may gain insight that will influence your judgement. When / if you leave that is the impression you take with you.

Dear Derek,
Agree with you. I left Belgium 15 years ago destination island of Lombok, Indonesia.
Brussels today, 15 years later is over colonized by migrants (legal and illegal) 70% of the people are from totally different cultures.
Another world …

Kind regards,
Jean-Paul 🙏🫶

Amazing article and great point.

A few years ago I returned to my home country after 10 years of complete absence. I had a culture shock from my "own" culture. A few people actually asked if I'm a foreigner because I've developed an accent from living abroad so much. I couldn't understand some slang.

Every little thing revealed that I was a foreigner: I forgot how to order food (you're supposed to come to the seller and be loud, not quietly wait for your turn).

On the other hand, everywhere is becoming Americanized. So if you're on Instagram/TikTok (I'm not), you will probably feel at home in most places as they slowly all become influenced by the same trends and memes.

You are who you were where you were when. Life is dynamic. Your point is well taken. Nothing is static except our thinking. If we’re not paying attention.

And the same applies to people. Any version of me you're holding onto is just an old photo.

Then how is it I’m still just a Masshole, still living in Massachusetts?

JK! Not. Maybe??

Enjoyed this. Definitely resonant with the phenomenon you’re pointing out.

I haven’t traveled a lot though, as evidenced above.

If you came back to Boston now, you would be dodging unruly delivery guys on minibikes and and scooters at every turn.

Which reminds of one of the few big trips I did take. It was to the South of France for a college art program in 1995. I was fascinated. Beautiful women in heels driving scooters through traffic like demons, possessed. Here in Boston it's not that aesthetic vibe for me. How could it be really? Remembering the scooter drivers in France takes a bit of edge off my consternation. I wonder if they're still tearing up the roads on the Côte d'Azur?

I am so moved by this observation, as a South Korean who left the country at age 12 and lived in a number of other countries since then, currently living in the United States. It’s hard not to agree with this observation that a country you once knew has likely changed since the last time you were there. However, just as some things in ourselves remain unchanged through time and space, there may be many important things about a country or place that remain the same through the passage of time.

Dear Sir
Yes, as per Vedic Scripture, a situation has actually 6 dimensions:
1. Location
2. Time
3. Timing - that is the point of progression and perception of the experiencing person and the people of that location
4. Intention
5. Perception of the beholder
6. Reflective Memory and Belief System of the beholder

All this 6 shapes one’s view of the reality

This is from the sage YajnaValkhya in Brahad-Aranyaka-Upanishad
The meaning of Upanishad means Experienced Truth, Brhad means dense and large, aranayaka means forest. This can be known as Dense, Deep, and Immense Knowledge of Experienced Truth given by the great Sage Yajna Valkhya (Yajna means sacrifice, Valkhya means expressing teacher - so his personality can be taken as some one who is self less, sacrificing and teaching from his own experiences)

Hope it sides with your experience and also enhances it.
Yours
VN

Interesting! Very interesting!

Absolutely LOVED this. So true Derek.

I grew up in India (Mumbai) and left to come to Australia in 1987.

We go back every few years and each time it feels like I'm visiting a different city.

The street I grew up on had 'bungalows' (I'm sure you've heard that word before) but now every single one has been replaced but massive high rise apartment blocks.

The air feels thick (with pollution) and it's only cool indoors with the air conditioning on.

The place is unrecognisable each time I visit.

Excellent, as always , Derek. And your observance that WHERE is bound to WHEN is most astute. Re: the U.S. not being what it was is certainly true, it's certainly taken a downhill trajectory in the last 10 years or so. But it's my hope that by remembering that and continuing the awakening that is taking place, we can make it into a U.S. that is everything it can and should be. And become an example which the rest of the world will once again aspire to be.

Totally agree and can relate. The last time I lived in the states was in 1989 for 2 years. I was in LA and loved it, I rode my bike from Santa Monica to the first coffeehouse in Venice Beach every morning 🤷🏻‍♀️ - it certainly is different now.
So I guess I have to say now « ah Paris in the 80’s was glorious » or something to that effect.
Thanks for your post!

Hi Derek,
Long time no see. That's a great piece.

I just had a holiday in Chiangmai during Chinese new year. I always had this wrong thought about Thailand (misled by previous media). I thought Thai people are hostile against Chinese tourists and it must be dangerous to travel there.

But the reality is local people are super friendly and people at different age tried to say hello to you(some of them are not fluent in English but knowing words to express greetings and gratitude). Thai people are mostly very genuine, kind and calm at all situations.

Maybe the wrong impression happened long time ago at extreme occasions. It's necessary to travel around and get to update my "knowledge" towards the world.

Hey Derek,
true. I was on Madeira, Portugal in 2006 and 2007, one week each time. And this March. The same places, really different vibe. Now like 10 times more cars and people. And the best place with Madeira wine burned.

Take care
M.

Yup, and not just geography. The places have changed. I too have changed.

For Indonesian
Specially
For Indonesian like me
Me this time 😊
Visit to West Europe, Amsterdam, Paris etc, is not easy
Not just because it is expensive
But also not easy to get the Visa

But I also understand with what you said in this article
I have to travel to Amsterdam, Paris etc as soon as possible
Because West Europe now may different with Europe in the future
They maybe not as good as i have heard,

I'm grateful that i finally that finally i make my dream come true

And i still find west Europe as good as i expect

Contact me if you come to Jakarta
Hey i wonder why don't you create YouTube channel? Or maybe you have already?

Here some Jakarta from my point of view

youtube.com/shorts/MI6I_jsBO8E?si=nAPH96Ymk1_QdGjN

youtube.com/shorts/-gaim2aVQ-k?si=ln2HJjRIKKHC-EU-

It seems your comments are true. They also can be applied to all actress and pinup girls I liked when I was younger: now that they and myself become older, they don’t have the same appeal to me like in the past! 😅

Hi Derek! This is why I love writing and reading Google reviews. A piece of my memories frozen in time on the Internet. Something I can revisit to remember what used to be. Something people can visit to understand a place better in the past and present.

There is a fifth dimension, and it is the most important one of all. It is implied in the “Parable of the Two Dogs,” which you can Google or just read from here:
open.substack.com/pub/branthuddleston/p/a-tale-of-twos-2-dogs-2-wolves-and?r=1g9mu8&utm_medium=ios

Derek, the world is in constant motion.

It is not just places, we humans too. We are not the same from few years ago - have the same name and face too!

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." - a Greek Philosopher.

I can relate with these thoughts Derek. I grew up in Lagos Nigeria, with such clean streets, cultured youths. I left in the 90s lived in Maryland then LA, then London UK. Last time I was in Lagos the chaos, street urchins, noise where shocking. I also left the UK to Africa in 2016 after 18yrs, I was a stranger among my people. I also wasn't getting the lingo, they called me foreigner. What a thought reflection of time

A clever observation.. and very apt.

Could add .. the only challenge .. we only get to visit in the present.

This is the missing chapter of "Useful Not True" ;)

You are so right I left England in 1977 and I left the UK in 1989 and all the people I’m talking to now so I have no idea what it’s like today I’ve lived in Germany for 25 years America for five years and I spent a lot of time at one point in Asia (Singapore, Malaysia and China) but again that was in the naughties. I am now in a Spanish island in the Atlantic and I’ve seen the changes over the past 11 years so I totally agree with what you’re saying.

this is SSSOOOOO true

I love this perspective! And the same applies to people.

I always tell my wife that we are lucky to have met at a specific time in our lives, when she was the person that she was, and i was the person that I was. At that exact specific time.

Our past or future versions, have they met, might have not fallen in love and appreciation of one another.

The same is true for any opportunity that we have in life. It has to approach us at the right time. Not right by circumstances alone, but right with regards to who we are at the time.

This is so true.

Comparing a place to what it is now to what it was 20 years, or even 40 years ago is asking for being completely wrong. It's even like that in real time. I see RE Agents trying to sell homes/condos/rentals where I'm at. The problem is, they're calling it by the City name, but it's on the other side of the mountain in a different county and not in the city they're claiming it is.

It's absolutely nuts how much places change and people's perspective doesn't.

What a delightful perspective.

I'd say that pretty much everything is subject to being "of it's time", watching the matrix when it came out was an entirely different experience to watching the matrix now. It also feels that for most, and just a bit, we get stuck in the version of a place that existed as we came of age, even as it changes around us.

Love this perspective. It's a really fun one and a thought provoking phenomenon, especially for anyone who travels or moves around and spends extended time in lots of different places!

Hi Derek,

Yeah, I guess this concept works itself right down to spacetime continuum. It's rife with mystery, paradox, irony and all those interesting philosophical truisms etc. I love the comment by Ibrahima - "The future ain't what it used to be."

I think of this all the time. Not only for the places I’d love to take my son to visit when his the right age, but because of the countries I’ve visited and still romanticising about living ten years later. It’s not the reality and the news tells me the place I visited definitely isn’t the place that exists now. However all of this makes the reality that much more depressing.

Agreed...that is the wonder of change, and thank f***...otherwise things would get very dull.

Heraclitus was right

That reflection reminds me of my experience as a Venezuelan immigrant — realizing that the country I once lived in, and sometimes deeply miss, is no longer really there in the same way.

Even when I connect with people who still live there, and I can feel the familiarity, I also notice the difference. It made me think that geography may even be five-dimensional if I include perception.

As always, I love your readings.

Caro

Spot on. Beautifully worded!

I absolutely love this, Derek. Per usual: short, smart and insightful.

Ensuring that we continue to look at life, our path, and the places we visit with fresh eyes is a terrific perspective.

Keep it coming, my man. The journey you are on is wonderful and I am grateful to be tracking along.

100% agree on this. Never saw it with this perspective thanks!

Dear Derek 💓👋🤸
So true.....it is a great memory that we can keep.
I love to create beauty in the place I am!!!
So much fun 😊
Planting apple trees today 😀!!!
Much love to You and Tunes ahead!!!
Rachel 😃👋

I like that. It is a thought-provoking perspective. It is like we are all walking around with snapshots of time of different places.

What a delightful perspective.

Hi Derek, Lukas Brandon here. You were right! I did enjoy the post and agree with it. The past is a place we can never visit again because the "when" has gone away. The arrow of time flies ever forward and so our four dimensional geographic space-time memories are not only unrevisitable, but apparently are inevitably changed each time one recalls them in our brain.

Thanks for the Post.

Lukas

No geography remains the same if people are present. If you are still in the land of the filmed middle earth, has that land remained constant?

You're certainly correct about that. The place I grew up in suburban Southern California, was a treeless, near-desert(ish) valley of wall-to-wall (foothill-to -foothill) newish, stucco tract homes. When I visit family and friends there now I am always surprised at how many, how large and verdant the trees now are that are just about everywhere. The town is unrecognizable at street level. And the number of people and crush of the traffic are insane. Some things got better and some things got much worse.

I also lived in Mexico City back in the early '70s—right downtown, near Chapultepec Part and all the museums and attractions. But I know that since then, there have been some major earthquakes there that destroyed many many buildings and I have to wonder if my old neighborhood would even be recognizable to me if I were to return now and wish to point out to wife and kids where I lived way back when (when I was a student).

Time changes everything. Nothing stays the same. Like the old saying: "You will never cross the same river twice." (or something like that). or in other words, there is no going "home" for any of us.

This explains the difference of opinion about China - I've recently visited and it is so clean yet someone I was talking to was adamant it was dirty, and like you said people were spitting and other things in the street. I should have asked when.

Reminds me of when Bill Gates said that Mexico City used to look like other developing countries just as far back as the 1980s.

I have definitely had that experience. When I was in college in the late 70s/early 80s, I used to visit my family in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. My dad was stationed at the US Embassy there. It was beautiful and friendly, and my brother and I travelled around freely, visiting the Mayan ruins in Copan and the beach at Tela. It is one of my favorite times to look back on.

Now they warn American tourists to stay away from Honduras. The two largest Honduran cities, San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, are perennially listed in the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world. Yikes. Good things do not stay the same, bad things do not stay the same - the world is always changing.

Great observation again!

I like it. Worth remembering. The only constant in life is change. Same with geography.

Thanks.

I recognise what you describe very well, having been born and raised in Helsinki, Finland in the winters 1951 - 1979, and in the summers in Oulu, Finland maybe 1951 - 1968 or so.
1979 I moved to Sweden with my girlfriend (now wife) where we stayed until 1991 when we moved to Ostrobothnia where I got a job at a municipal theatre as an audio FX master, and in 2000 we moved to the Åland Islands where my wife is from.
Especially the people I knew in Sweden and still have contact with, tell me it's different there nowadays, but also the other places have changed.
And people in Helsinki speak differently than they did when I lived there. Not so much the people I knew, but when I see a film with young people from Helsinki, I think they sound ridiculous!

I live in a place that’s always been a memory that you could step into. People would visit here, move here, to live, not as they did, but as we “should;” as if they could bring that other way of living from where they had been and engraft it here without losing what they’d sought by leaving it. And so, slowly, subtly, it is fading to a memory in full, and slipping behind a veil.

I feel grief at that, and tragic loss. But I guess life is like that, because we’re moving in that fourth dimension, too.

Someone shared a poem with me by Robert Lowell called “Skunk Hour.” It’s about this place:

Nautilus Island’s hermit
heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage;
her sheep still graze above the sea.
Her son’s a bishop. Her farmer
is first selectman in our village;
she’s in her dotage.

Thirsting for
the hierarchic privacy
of Queen Victoria’s century,
she buys up all
the eyesores facing her shore,
and lets them fall.

The season’s ill—
we’ve lost our summer millionaire,
who seemed to leap from an L. L. Bean
catalogue. His nine-knot yawl
was auctioned off to lobstermen.
A red fox stain covers Blue Hill.

And now our fairy
decorator brightens his shop for fall;
his fishnet’s filled with orange cork,
orange, his cobbler’s bench and awl;
there is no money in his work,
he’d rather marry.

One dark night,
my Tudor Ford climbed the hill’s skull;
I watched for love-cars. Lights turned down,
they lay together, hull to hull,
where the graveyard shelves on the town. . . .
My mind’s not right.

A car radio bleats,
“Love, O careless Love. . . .”I hear
my ill-spirit sob in each blood cell,
as if my hand were at its throat. . . .
I myself am hell;
nobody’s here—

only skunks, that search
in the moonlight for a bite to eat.
They march on their soles up Main Street:
white stripes, moonstruck eyes’ red fire
under the chalk-dry and spar spire
of the Trinitarian Church.

I stand on top
of our back steps and breathe the rich air—
a mother skunk with her column of kittens swills the garbage pail
She jabs her wedge-head in a cup
of sour cream, drops her ostrich tail,
and will not scare.

Super interesting! Reminds me of a philosophical post I'll never write called:

Person is four-dimensional

That concludes... Who am I now?

As a portuguese with a mystical-initiatic bent, I agree with that stance "Geography is four-dimensional", with the remark that the fourth dimension may be the entry door to a range of others, in the "Great Chain of Being" modes of perceiving reality. And we can have a specific flavour of that fourth dimension only if we access the layers of the specific place we're in - and entering the Geosophical mode, the subjective-transpersonal one that acknowledges those unique anima mundi fragrances in each and every ground it touches.

I believe I'm replying with the Fifth Empire layer of my culture - the culture of Fernando Pessoa, as well as Luís de Camões, Padre António Vieira, Agostinho da Silva, Paulo Borges, etc.. I'm also a creator of it at this point.

Thank you for the great works

Derek,
Thank you for the perspective reminder! My own life adventures have put me in places during great times and some crappy times. But it is always perspective that keeps me grounded.
And readings from people like you.
Thank you

I had this conversation with my 8-year-old this morning. She told me she doesn’t believe in Santa Claus and I asked her if she thought the world was real. She said no, and that led to this conversation about the present being the only real moment we can know, and how past and future can only live in our minds. Then she said: “See? I’m right.” We’ve also lived in China and multiple states in U.S. and visited other countries; she is trilingual. Which brings up another dimensional filter. If you are in China and speak Mandarin (she does; I don’t) China will also be a different place. Languages and dialects also add a dimension, as does the age of the person perceiving a place. I lived in Puerto Rico when I was her age, and I spoke Spanish. I’m sure my parents would remember the place differently from me.

So true & yes,reviews of anyplace are always subjective but what I learned from Chasidim is that we must always try to be "joyful" positive
In whatever we do....
You write beautifully...
DH
👍🍻♥️🎉🎸🍦🥳🫵

Exactly! No man ever steps in the same river twice!

One of life's cruel jokes is that we can only be at one place at one time.

It reminds me of when I visited a town I used to party in 10 years later. I thought I would feel nostalgic and remember the good times, but instead I noticed how sad and pathetic these kids looked. I realized I was once one of those kids. This town was no longer for me. It served a purpose in my life, but I no longer recognized the person I was 10 year ago. I had grown and left that world behind me. I want to think I am better now, but I anticipate I'll feel that way about where I am now in about ten years. So it goes.....

Hi Derek,

How true! My wife and I just got back from 30 days in Europe. We visited a few places we had previously (8 years before) and they were very different with one exception. The only thing that wasn't different was the fact that every city we were in from small town Ortigia, Sicily to Paris, France the walls of the city were littered with initials and names of taggers. We saw it eight years ago as well. It was not graffiti art it was just names in some sort of font. have you been to any place that doesn't have tags on walls?

Singapore! ☺ — Derek

You are so right about that, Derek. I lived in Camarillo for two years in the early 70s and when I would visit LA, I had great experiences because of the friends I went with. I went back to Beverly Hills a few years ago and it was very nice in that area still, but neighborhoods in other areas change sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better over the course of fifty years. Most places have gotten way worse with traffic, but if you don't have to drive much, it can be great. TGO Terrific Grasp of the Obvious is what we called this in college. Have you had a chance to just read one chapter anywhere in our book, FROM ENRAGED TO ENGAGED: COUPLES THERAPY: FROM CONFLICT TO CONNECTION AND LOVE by Patrick and Christina Purcell. Some of it might seem like TGO, but most of it can help save a relationship.

Derek, this is absolutely spot on. As they say “I laughed, I cried, I identified.”
Love reading how much others share in and how they subtly differ with this experience. I’ve lived all over the world and the “Where are you from?” question is almost unfathomable. I have a 10 second, 1 minute, 10 minute version like yourself, Derek!

I’m 19 years out from when I first left Ireland & the place I left is no longer. I can only imagine how different LA is from 1999. It’s very different from 2015 when I first started spending time here. Now and then, I’m in a sort of Celtic melancholy, really it’s closer to what the Portuguese gives us as “saudade”, that is on me’ for a time. In the Irish language we say emotions are “on us” and I believe that to be true, and crucially helpful. I’m not my emotions. But what am I? One of my favourite poems, and something I lived first hand when I returned to the ‘auld sod after a decade long exile of sorts is a T. S. Eliot that reminds us
“…the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
Sometimes the literal and metaphorical meet. At that crossroads, and, through the veil; I catch a glimpse.
Perhaps that’s the 5th dimension, and that’s what has really changed.

I think about this often but in slightly different terms: How much a place can change in two decades! Think of Europe in the 40s (war) vs Western Europe in the 60s (culturally thriving). Or compare the US in the 1960s with the US in the 1980s. So, of course, when you're thinking about a place you haven't visited in 20 years, it can have completely transformed.

Times and things change, sometimes for the better, sometime for worst, a lot depends on the people living there. Governments and laws they bring in and laws they enforce or don't enforce make lives worst or better. In these days of woke, life is taking on the feeling of "as in the days of Noha" as the bible says. The bible says also that things will wax worst and worst and then the end will come. Anyone that reads the bible can see things happening now that Jesus said will be happening just before He takes His church out of earth and leaves evil to happen unchecked for seven years. I don't know where you stand on religious things, but I would advise you start reading the bible. It reveals the future so we can be aware of what to expect but we can not know just when to expect it but we can know the signs.

Hi Derek,

Your observation is shrewd.

I do wonder, though, to what extent places, through the passage of time, maintain elements of their identity?

With kind regards,
Sebastien Charpentier

I think you’ve got it covered. If we’re lucky to be present in the moment, every place we’re in is just a snapshot in time of the memory one collects.
Also, since you have collected memories of others, the biases of the individual cloud and reinforce an ethnocentric view seemingly extreme.

I lived on an ARAMCO compound in 3 different areas of Saudi Arabia from 1976 - 1990. It was like a living on a country club then and my family didn't favor us moving back to the USA. But I am so glad we did before the first gulp war. I would not want to be there now.

A 4th dimensional place for sure.

Derek, so much truth in your observations. I can apply it to where I live now (Wiltshire UK) and where I used to live (Northamptonshire, UK). J😃

It's sad that the ideals of America which were so strong before have become a memory. That is why it is important to cling to God as he is the same yesterday today and forever. As I get older and find myself chasing after him through the cloud of unknowing he pulls me in closer to him. I look forward to sharing eternity with him in a place that is so much more stable than anywhere on earth abounding in his love.

Things should always be getting better over time (personal opinion) overall things have been getting worse, unless you are very rich. The future in the USA is bleak.

Yes, I have experienced this many times. I’ve lived in 10 cities in 9 countries and those places no longer exist (at least not like I’ve experienced them).
Our belonging can only be expected in the present.

My younger brother asked me to go back to Staten Island, NY with him late last year. I haven't been back since 2002. Going back to the place where I grew up and spent part of my early adulthood didn't appeal to me.

I knew it wouldn't be how I remember it. Most of the people I grew up with are no longer in my life.

When he came back, he admitted it wasn't as enjoyable as he thought it would be. The best part, for him, was showing his young son where he grew up and reminiscing about simpler times.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”

Great words Derek. I can relate.

I absolutely agree! This has been my experience also.
Thank you for the great reminder.

Every experience of a place and time is unique and can never be repeated.
I think it applies to people too.. constantly responding and evolving.

Accepting and adjusting our expectations is another of life's learnings refocusing us to truly appreciate the 'present'.

So true. But we also have a strong desire for a place to stay as it was. I was born in Ireland and moved to Venice, CA at 11 months. Both were different rather quickly but my parents virtually lived in a 1950s Ireland in So Cal. Both places are radically different and even have physically changed.

Great observation again!

I agree Derek. When I meet my friends from Kuala Lumpur - I reminisced about a lot of places and experience from 30 years ago - they said I'm frozen in time. What I described is no longer true. And I felt so old!

An interesting and very true thought on 4d geography, Derek.
I visited Japan several times in the 1980s through business. I was enthralled by the culture and the friendliness. I returned in 2017 for a 3 week holiday with my wife to mark her 60th birthday. I was interested to experience how and if the Japanese culture had changed in over 30 years. I was pleasantly surprised that little had changed. The people were still disciplined, no litter, and very friendly and would go out of their way to help us - so many great experiences in meeting with total strangers.

This is a very interesting topic. Last year I visited Japan again for the first time in 42 years. A lot of things had changed but I still remembered some of it exactly the way it was. In fact, I found three of the four houses that I lived in when I was a kid in Japan and I knew them by sight, I knew them by location, I remembered everything about them.

Also in terms of just being there and talking to the people and remembering a lot about the culture and having my language flow more easily again, I did feel like I was home again. I felt more home there than I do here in the States.

So I both agree with this post but also think there are caveats and cases where those memories absolutely do apply.

The great paradox: the only thing guaranteed not to change is change itself. It's a bit like action. Some of us might think, if I don't choose, I'm staying neutral. But doing nothing is a choice, and therefore, an action too. We're all in the stream of this thing we call life. Just like we can't step into the same river twice (because the flowing water has changes the river minute by minute), we likewise can't stay the same by ... doing nothing, for that is a choice, and everything around us moves anyway--for now at least. At some point in our lives, the rules of the game of life will change fundamentally.

Greetings Derek,
I always enjoy your writing and perspectives.
Yes, it's true mostly. Particularly where we Homo sapiens dominate, which is becoming more & more. I was thinking that there are still some little sleepy towns that have been that way for decades. Also wilderness areas - rainforests, the Himalayas. But you're right even many of those areas are being developed and changing. Since the industrial revolution, all over the world change is happening at an unprecedented pace. From 1974 - 1984 I lived in Flagstaff Arizona which was a small mountain town - Not anymore. What I tend to write about (spoken word w/music) has this element in it. We have become the most invasive species on this Earth. Health Through Creativity, Alex

It's not just the places that change, but people change as well. When I moved to Auckland, I went back to India after a year, and I expected my friends to be the same, and they had all moved on, but then so had I when I moved to a new country.

It gets a bit weirder than that, though.

Recently I went on holiday to Greece, and I am very much into photography. It's not been the first time that I've been to Greece, but this time I went with a different mindset. I wanted to capture Greece from a different time, based on some photographs I had seen. Now, obviously, those photographs had been cherry picked, because it was probably Greece from the 60s or 70s, and the photographer probably travelled a great distance and to some remote areas to capture those photographs. I was pretty disappointed that everyone was wearing T-shirts and jeans, and it's taken me a long time to get over that disappointment, even though I knew it from the start .

Everything changes and so do we. We just don't feel the change until we make a move to go some place else :)

Great reminder.
Also makes me think that these time based changes aren’t as obvious when you’re in the thick of it. Similar to the changes of people. Time and space factor perhaps.

It’s nice to hear from you Derek. Yes the past is something we remember that might not be how it has remained. I hope you are doing well.

Derek, you are right on the money. I’ve been many places in the world but my experiences are just frozen snapshots in time. Well done! For those who have stayed in one place for many years, many want the inevitable evolution to stop and even return to the sepia tinted good old days. Those who pursue the return to retro wind up making their own new reality, usually for the worst. The world moves on regardless.

I’ve been a quiet fan all these years. Carry on.

Kindly, Jess
Now in Taos, NM

I’ve actually been saying this exact idea for a few years now. I tend to say “there’s no such thing as missing a place, only missing a place in time.” The Brazilian household I grew up in only taught me 1980s Brazil, growing up near pre-9/11 NYC means I don’t recognize NYC today, and being in Caracas from 2016-2018 means I can’t relate to the Venezuela of today.

Cool.
Reflecting on how speed/velocity applies to places and relating that with rate of change.

Interesting that you should be thinking that, Derek. I've been thinking the same thoughts about old pictures, and how we fool ourselves into thinking those pictures are in the present. I think it causes us to hold on to a lot of false ideas about what we often call reality.

This is beautifully written and true. I have never thought about it that way, but sometimes I remember the house where I used to live with my grandparents. The house is still standing, but it is very different. The time, stories and energy shared with my grandparents only lives in my memory. The same thing happens to places: you never visit the same city twice. Thank you for such a lovely text.

To echo a bit of what others said here, perhaps WE are 4D as well. I haven't noticed much change in the USA, but my priorities have changed. Younger, I lived in a big city and was out at all hours. Older and wiser and sleepier, I prefer quiet nights to hootin' hollerin' and partyin'! Haha! Rock on, all.

You never step in the same river twice.

The interesting thing for me is not what changes but what stays the same.

30 years ago, people in Sofia used to say that there are no buildings taller than 15 floors because 'the ground is too soft' (tell that to Dubai!). Now they are all over the place. And people in BMWs stop at pedestrian crossings, and there is some semblance of control over smoking indoors, and you can put your seatbelt on in a taxi without the meter suddenly doubling its speed ... the list goes on.

And yet, some things are very much the same - especially when viewed relative to another country. It's the tastes, preferences, quirks. It's the behaviours, it's some of the beliefs (of both infuriating and endearing varieties). And most important of all, it is the smells!!! Blindfold me, put me in the back of a van and drop me in the Borisova Garden in May, and ask me to guess where I am, and I probably will. Same applies to Radhuspladsen in Copenhagen in December.

My biggest disappointment, water in Sofia no longer tastes the same - it used to be glorious, it's now merely very good.

I often think of this idea with gardens. A garden in February (in England anyway) is really not much like the same garden in April, when it will be newly full of bright flowers. I was told once that a good gardener thinks of planting in four dimensions - and the idea stuck with me.
Also: if you visit someone’s garden and say how much you like it they often reply by saying “you should have seen it when the X or Y was in bloom…”

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..."

The opening paragraph of "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

I grew up in the UK. In my teenage years things had changed you could listen to any music on the internet so I did mostly from obscure countries in languages I did not understand. So when people say you must x artist from the UK I have no idea.

Nice thought. My first visit to the UK and long stay as a student was at the end of the 1960s. I return there from Australia every year on work-related business. The London I knew is no longer that same easy, breezy, fab, swinging city of the 1960s that I knew. Much endures - the city's ancient layout, parks and gardens, and its buildings with the ultra modern side by side with the old. It loves its traditions, of course. But London feels like a different country to the rest of the UK. Get outside its environs and you are in a different world.

It's like the saying, "you never see the same river twice"...the water is flowing, the rocks on the bottom are moving or eroding & the shoreline can change after a big storm. All of that and more.

I’m from here but not this here is profound

You are totally right. I left Argentina in 1990, lived 18 years in México City, then I lived 8 years in Los Angeles and I'm currently located in South Florida since 2017.
Mendoza, my home town in Argentina, has changed a lot in all these years, somethings for good, others for bad. Same with México, Los Angeles and South Florida.
The only thing that is constant is exactly that: change.

Really interesting reflection. As a comparison, research shows that people who emigrate often preserve older versions of their language and cultural expressions longer than people in their home country. In some cases, diaspora communities can sound almost like a linguistic time capsule, like Icelandic that has preserved many features closer to Old Norse.
Other examples are Norwegian-Americans in the Midwest US who kept words and expressions that disappeared or changed in Norway and Swedish spoken by older Swedish-American communities, which sometimes sounds old-fashioned to modern Swedes.

Yep.... I left Australia 20 years ago, and think of going back sometime (I live in New Zealand now). I'm certain it's not like it was. Not sure if that's good, bad, or equal.

Hi Derek,
Interesting concept. I’m thinking of the Rush song ‘Time Stand Still”. Within the process of creating art, the artist ‘sees’ the subject anew. Following this vibe, see ‘The Zen of Seeing” by Frederick Franck….time stands still…

Exactly — and it’s just as true when you’re afraid to move. Deep down, your heart often knows when it’s time to live somewhere else, but your brain clings to a version of ‘home’ that no longer exists. It invents excuses, anchored more in nostalgia and the past than in the reality of the present.

Ah, time. The forgotten dimension with imperceivable yet significant impacts on our perspectives, and a reminder that those perspectives are not as permanent as we may believe.

Your closing thoughts also make a compelling case for all of us to shed those geographic labels altogether and stick with the generic label of 'Human' going forward :)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us!

I'm shamelessly stealing this idea for future intros!

I grew up in Ukraine, the Ukraine from 90s.
I did high school in Texas, the Texas from 2000s.
I lived in Poland, the Poland of 2010s.

Thanks for great idea making geography more nuanced :)

I love observations like this. It contains much wisdom that reflects the fact that life, or the universe if you will, is always, ALWAYS changing and evolving. Not being aware or accepting of this simple law becomes the breeding ground for stereotyping, ignorance, and misaligned beliefs.
I always get a kick out of how we humans have a penchant for summarizing things and quickly put them into compartments, never updating the files. these files are usually based on memories, and yet are used to address current matters. Thanks for inspiring me to have that thought.

This was great - never heard this perspective before. And now that you have me thinking - it's exactly right. I'm traveling to London with my wife in September. I haven't been there since I studied over there in 1990 while in college. I had the best time and loved the people, history, etc., and have waited 35 years to go back. Now I realize I will be going to a different place than I left. I'm sure it will still be great, but I'll appreciate what's there NOW and not compare it with my memories.
Very thoughtful piece - I always appreciate your insights.
Brad

I mostly agree. There are many places that I used to love which I have no interest in returning to: NYC, SF, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, Jerusalem, Chicago, Minneapolis, ... All too crowded, too homogenized, too unpeaceful. All that said, I still think that places (or at least the culture that inhabits them) have their own DNA. New York has lost what made it special and so has Taiwan, but New York will never be Taiwan, or the reverse of that.
By the way ... I have a fun new book coming out this month: www.cambridge.org/core/books/understanding-language-through-humor/84603FB6933FCE9349182086D48FCF3D

Awesome post Derek. So true and has me thinking of all the countries and experiences had over the years, and how the discussions with others about them resonate with your words. Will certainly be asking, when, from now on.

I totally agree. About 25 years ago, my mother and father (both born and raised in Sicily), scrimped and saved to get the money to go back and see their family, friends, and the places they grew up. They were all moon eyed about it and couldn't wait to get on the plane after having been away for 40 years.

Because the flight was expensive and they'd had to save for such a long time to afford it, they decided to go and spend a full 6 months there - they had lots of family willing to take them in for that time.

My dad lasted 2 days before he wanted to come back home to Australia desperately. He absolutely HATED it.

Unfortunately, they'd paid for tickets that didn't allow it so he had to put up with it for the full 6 months.

I think it was the worst 6 months of his life.

Interesting, huh?

One of your other readers nailed it. Because WE have also changed, it wouldn't matter if we went back to the America of the 1980's. Geography is FIVE-DIMENSIONAL!!!

Love that perspective!

I totally identify with this experience. I’m from weird as hell, insulated, pre-internet, naive Portland, Oregon. When I go back now I only recognize the shadows of the buildings and people, not the buildings or people themselves.

And I moved to Brooklyn in 1998. I’m still operating as if it’s the Brooklyn I fell in love with. It isn’t. Might be time for a divorce.

Thanks for your post!

-P

Same thing, but in reverse.
My brother was in Paris in early 2000's and came back and said it was the cleanest, most beautiful, city of his Eruopean jaunt.
I don't think anyone could honestly say anything approaching that today.

I'm a kiwi that has lived in Australia for 34 years. All my identifiers, particularly my accent, my school, the place I grew up, has loosened with time. I didn't realise that it was my family and loved ones that kept me bonded to the place. Once they passed, thankfully of old age, I find that I know longer have those strong connections. I have good memories of places and people but being a New Zealander is no longer the first thing people know about me when they meet me. When I do go back these days, it is the realisation that they have moved on and grown and changed and I am stuck back in the 90s.

A very profound and astute observation there, Derek

I am reminded of that almost every day. Back in 1970 I was stationed in Germany.. When you look across the wall at East Germany it pretty much looked the way it did when the war ended. So years later, I was on a cruise ship and one of the passengers was from East Germany. And I told her what it looked like from the west. She was born after the wall came down.

And she was very angry with me for talking bad about East Germany. Then I took the train to Berlin and the brand new giant train station was in east Germany. I was looking for checkpoint Charlie and I came from the wrong direction. Then I realized exactly what you pointed out.

East Germany is now a beautiful thriving place. The Mercedes complex the brand new railroad station(which by the way is already 20 years old and probably doesn’t look like it did when I was there). And don’t talk about my hometown – that has changed three times in my life.

And so I fully understand this wonderful essay you wrote. And I believe places are not the only thing that this happens to. I think it happens to people too. As my daughter once said: “are you sure he’s been your best friend for over 20 years or was he your best friend 20 years ago?”

And so we move forward and even if we don’t everything around us does.

Thanks for sharing this quite the conversation starter.

Smiles, Kevin.

People ask me where I am from and I like to say "I'm from earth." They laugh and ask seriously where you born from? I reply, "From Neptune." A bit annoyed now, they urge, "Seriously, where?" I say, "It's true, Neptune City, NJ. But it's not what it used to be in the 80's. All the city folks from other nearby states invaded it." I've lived in 7 different states... and it repeats of so much changes and the patterns is clear as daylight. Living in America is distressing for majority of folks who are scraping by. It's just the ultra rich or the poor... no more middle class folks anymore. People changed too overall - all ages... is it because of technology? Have we forgotten the good ole fashion values that makes a neighborhood a community? Yes, it's different.

Indeed, it seems we often realize our memories our a mere time capsule, and the place we left is subject to endless change.

And it's easy to be aware of the change when we return, or maybe never left.

I'm often suspect another's first-hand account of a place, eleven while we are there in the moment!

While in China, talking with locals, I was told so many versions of "China is this way" or "China is that way". Surely they were all true to that unique individuals experience, little pieces of the greater place in its entirety. Sometimes, though, completely different from my own experience!

“ No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” - Heraclitus

Perceptive point Derek and always good to wake people up to change.

Agree that you only know a place at a snapshot in time.
Looking forward to the day when I can stand in a place and dial back time to see how it has changed over the years ;)

True, very true.

Especially the roads.

They change sometimes.

There's this shortcut I used to take in my local area in Ile-Ife.

I went to Lagos for some years and came back for a bit.

People around were like what are you looking for?

I was like "Oh, there used to be a path here".

They were like "Oh, it's been a while...there's no road here again"

"You'll have to go all the way around, pass there" they pointed afar.

There was also a time I traveled to Iwo, a local Area too...

There used to be a shop where I ate yam and beans.

Fast forward to sometime later, I couldn't tell if they closed or moved.

"Oh, she is no more here" people around there said.

She was consistently at that spot, so people knew her.

Wow! I thought.

People, paths and things in places move, similar to the clock.

Tick Tock, like Oh...would you look at that, it's gone!

I got back to Lagos after sometime.

I thought I had seen all the overhead bridges.

"What's causing the Traffic again this time?" I asked.

Funny how you have to shout in the yellow buses called Danfo.

They sometimes say "Wole Pelu Change e" it means get in with your change.

The Long Red Buses although cheaper, is quite suffocating.

It's quite noisy too, busy and full of people going everywhere all at once.

Depending on the area by the way, there are cool places on the Lagos Island.

Some on the Lagos mainland aren't so bad too.

An Uber is quite advisable if you have the money to book one though.

"Oh, it's an overhead bridge they just built" another passenger shouted.

I almost couldn't recognize the paths again.

I cycle though. Risky, but oh the Traffic sometimes. Lol!

"Okay", I thought...deep sigh, "Okay"

So yes, The "When" is important.

Especially when the path or road is concerned.

Grateful for google maps, some newly developed areas don't show up there until they're registered though.

As always a refreshing read.

Thanks for helping people mentally experience many different cultures.

Thanks for clearly communicating in a way that makes people more open minded.

interesting perspective.

thank you.

I totally agree. Although I lived in NYC till 2012, from late 1992-2001 living in there were some of the greatest times of my life, but it will never be the same. That time is in the past…it doesn’t exist. The only way to possibly return to that time, would be by “time travel”. Hmmmmmmm….? With all that said, I do have the “hope” that if I went back one day to my block on
E. 14th St. between Ave. A and B, NYC 10009 that I would have the same “feeing” looking west down the street on a crisp early morning or walking around at night listening to jazz. But that is visual/aural. Would I have the same “feeling” playing a gig at the Bitter End? Maybe… Can we “feel” nostalgia just by being in the same place, doing the same thing, even though it’s 30 years later. Maybe…
Sort of having a hard time pinpoint-defining your “4 dimensions”.

love Love love the insights and thoughts. I am Canadian living in the US and have travelled a bit. oh my yes, our memories of places can get distorted over time. I am heading to Toronto for my 50th high school reunion. It should be another HUGE eye opener. Hugs

Derek,
This is a brilliant insight! Yes, without the time dimension, geography only tells half the story.

"I love Russia!" says Joe.

"Me too," I reply. "Especially in the 17th century!"

Or, "I find Madagascar fascinating."

"Yes, especially when it separated from India 89 million years ago."

Lastly, there is the crotchety man who wants all 4 dimensions to stay fixed forever, even though nothing in the universe is ever fixed. They whine, "Why can't Alabama be like it was in the good old days?"

It's the "who moved my cheese?" effect playing out in 4 dimensions.

Take heart, you're living in the good old days now, according to those who will live in 2070.

This is missing the 5th dimension, where are you in your life and how you relate to the people and place.

University is a fabulous and fun place in you're early 20's but as you enter you're 30's its less fun.

Traveling is the same, Tofino was absolute paradise when I lived there at 23 but going back at 31 and it's not as exciting, but just as pretty. It might be a place I take my family in the future but it's not a solo trip anymore.

Europe at 21 was beautiful and a great place to meet girls, get drunk, and break into unesco heritage sites. I suspect going back later in life wont be the same. The places will look the same, the people may or may not be different but my relation to them will be fundamentally different.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Well, that sums just about all of my education! (Advanced degrees in history and religious education...just to humblebrag) When I go back to my university...it looks the same but it is not. Not a single professor I had still teaches and, although I swear I look the same, no one recognizes me and I don't recognize anyone. Same place...different times.

"You can't go home again." A great title for a book and a clear life truth. As always...love your work.

I know what you're saying Derek. I travel a lot for Music and I'm pretty much loving everywhere I go. But I'm kind of in the Happy music world surrounded by people listening to music etc. Sometimes I come home and people say I can't believe you liked it there it was horrible when we went to fill in the blank for whatever country or State. Obviously geography is time bound but I think we bring ourselves everywhere we go and like Nielsen said in the Piont "you see what you want to see and you hear what you wanna hear"
I think sometimes culturally we bring our expectations with us and that can be a problem if you hold too tightly to those expectations. Thanks for the post as always

You are who you were where you were when. Life is dynamic. Your point is well taken. Nothing is static except our thinking. If we’re not paying attention.

OK, you got me by asking me to read this. I actually have some perspective on this. probably not different from your own children.

I was born into a military family in 1959. I was born on an Army base in Massachusetts. It was decommissioned in the 1980s, and the old wooden Army hospital I was born in was torn down. In fact, due to some legal issues around being born on Army bases at the time, my birth certificate doesn't name the base, instead the closest town to the old hospital location, which is Shirley MA.

None of that is there anymore, and if I went back to where I was born, nobody would know me and I wouldn't know anybody. So, there's no cozy "hometown" experience for me cherish. That's just how that cookie crumbled.

When I was 2 we moved to North Carolina for a short period (I believe 6 months) while my Dad went to a base in southern Germany. We joined him in Germany when I was three and lived there three years. Then every couple of years we bounced back and forth between Massachusetts, Virginia, and Germany. We last lived in (West) Berlin during my puberty years (11-13), which was kind of wild. Berlin - and Germany - were split, and Bonn was considered the capital of West Germany. I haven't been back since.

Needless to say, the Germany I lived in 1971 - 1973 is not the same Germany as today.

Not only that, the Massachusetts I lived in, and the Boston I visited as a kid is not the same one. The Patriots were an "expansion team" (that's what we called new football franchises in those days), and were the biggest losers in the NFL in those days (yes, even football has changed).

After we came back from Germany, we moved to Raleigh NC. My parents were both from small towns in North Carolina, and by the way neither of those small towns are like they were when I lived at my grandmother's house in 1962.

I attended senior year in HS and 4 years at UNC in Greensboro. I graduated in 1984.

In 2011 I attended a family reunion on my (late) mother's side in the small town of Scotland Neck, NC. My mom's father was a farmer and raised his two sons and four daughters in the old farming life. Well, now the farm has all been sold, and no one lives in the farmhouse. A cousin keeps it mostly just for sentimental reasons, and has family events there occasionally. My uncles are all dead (amazingly, I still have two aunties in their late 90's!), and the cousins I used to ride horses with are all in their 60's, like me.

Talk about changes! I didn't even know most of the people at the family reunion because they were all born after I left NC in 1986. Me and my brother did get a lot of respect for being the older, original family guys that had traveled the world, so that was nice. They wanted to hear stories from places they'd never been, so that was kind of fun.

So if you were raised moving around the planet like the post WWII (boomer) military brats were, the fact that "when" factors into the places you've lived is kind of built-in. I never even really thought about it that way.

That's why the term "four dimensional geography" caught my eye.
Yes, it's technically the correct way to describe the phenomenon, but I just never really thought about it using that term before.

I know you have at least one son, but anyway, even if you have more kids, I know you have been taking them around the planet with you, so this perspective probably comes naturally to them as well. But again, I doubt you hear them using the term "four dimensional geography" very often, do you?

Anyway, it's on my list to go over to your site and get up to speed with your online presence again. I'll never forget how you helped me with your kind review when I was building the Yoginis world jazz project.

You'll always have a friend in Seattle, at least until I move away, likely soon after I start getting my full social security at age 70 (that will be late 1929). I'm missing India and I have also kind of fallen in love with Portugal. In fact, I'm heavily considering Goa, where I have a good Portuguese friend whose family estate is there. In Goa, I'll have some Portuguese culture and some Indian culture. I hear they have a small but vibrant music scene there, and they like East-West fusion. In fact the scene is called "the Goa-Jazz" scene. It would be fun to connect with a few good musicians in my golden years there.

Remember to reach out if you're ever back in the PNW. We'll meet for a hike or something fun.

Take care!

To most of us you will always be the CD Baby guy from the Myspace days over 20 years ago. I found my Plastic Parachute CD in my car yesterday.
You want to talk about time travel and different moments in time in different places? As someone in the UK I used to enjoy re-visiting places across France, Spain, Poland and around England, Wales and Ireland especially. Increasingly I found it bewildering and sometimes disturbing how an exact place evolved, as I either mis-remembered or simply the magic was lost when going back.

Nostalgia is a big, fat liar.

I find it interesting how we associate a village with the people who live there. When I get the chance to return to my home town I see it hasn't changed at all. It's the houses, businesses, and other accoutrements that have been added which cause the alteration.
It's not the place, but the people who have changed.

I totally agree! My husband and I traveled to Thailand and Cambodia several times 2000 - 2003. We went back in 2011 with the expectation to visit all the cool places we saw last time. But it really was like visiting totally different countries. The tourist infrastructure had grown massively and basically totally ruined it. But people make a better living off the tourists now, so who can blame them.

This is so very true! Makes me think of how I visit places and even still, see them as they were, not necessarily how they are now

Great reading, thanks. I also think that while the places inevitably evolve, there is a subjective dimension where we change our perspective of the places as well. I lived around LA in the early 90s and I've lived in New York since then and I've been back and forth here and there. The essence of both places has not change for me with my experiences. Cheers

So very true. Until recently (I moved to Yunnan province last year), I'd lived in Beijing for over a dozen years and lǎo(old) Beijingers which I now count myself a member reminisce on the golden years. When I'm asked whether I'd move back to NYC, I tell people my NYC died a couple of decades ago, while the same can increasingly be said for my America.

This is why I moved from NYC to Beijing, from Beijing to Dali. The first two places were perfect for me until they no longer were, at which point I move the a new place that fits me best.

But that 4th dimension works both ways. It's not only that places change, people change over time and certainly our perspective.What I wanted and valued in life while living in NYC were very different from today which is why I live at the foot of Cangshan mountain overlooking Erhai Lake. How long I stay in Dali may depend more on my evolving perspective than any changes that occur here.

I'm visiting the country of my birth, England, for the first time in four years.

Though some of scenery will still be the same, it is not the same place. As a child, I remember where I used to hang out with my friends and the local sweet shop I used to go to (on my own) for a bag of 1-penny chews. I remember the comic shop, the library, the youth centre.

As an adult, those places are no longer there. I look for somewhere to get a coffee (somewhere that never existed when I lived there), somewhere to sit in silence and read a good book. The city I was brought up in is a different place. Geography is four-dimensional.

Well said, Derek, and for the most part I agree. But I'm curious what you mean when you say:

"I used to describe myself as American, but that’s becoming less true with time. I’m from the America of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.

But that place is long gone. It’s not like that anymore."

If you're referencing pop music, movies, automobiles, fashion and trends, you're absolutely right! It's a brand new world.

But what I miss most are the societal attitudes and beliefs most Americans once subscribed to. For example, in the '60s when America was struggling with national racial discrimination and segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. led the way in changing attitudes and laws through nonviolent peaceful civil disobedience.

Sixty years later, many legacy media outlets and public protesters advocate violent and destructive demonstrations in trying to address much smaller problems, such as the George Floyd riots or the opposition to "Operation Metro Surge".

I created a song and lyrics that explains my point of view.

"The Streets We Used to Know"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTg6i7tTVKQ

I hope you enjoy it!

Robert Burtis

Hello Derek,

I was reading through Google AI Essentials and too a brief break to search for something in my email and saw an email from you. I quickly opened to read the content and immediately I related the Four-Dimensional concept to my learning of AI has knowledge cutoff limitation. In order to reduce the knowledge cutoff, we should specify timeframes in prompts and ask follow-up questions if answers seem outdated.

Thanks for the write up. I hope you and your son are having fun exploring off-grid.

- Sarath

Happened to me too on my first trip back to Barcelona after 7 years living in Lhasa. I couldn’t stop comparing everything to my childhood memories.

Some places are physically stuck in the past, the infrastructure never evolves, but the inhabitants do. The population gets replaced, and little by little the city loses its soul.

I completely agree. The places I've lived people also talk about and its completely different today than when I lived there. Naples, Florida for instance I lived in during the 80s when there was still land, woods and everything other than concrete high rise condos. It's a foreign land to me now.

Enjoy your work so much, thank you.

I couldn't agree more!! I recently driving around my hometown and was nocting what had changed or remembering what it used be when I was young. Since places change so gradually you don't really realize until you have time away or reflect on it.

Hey Derek,

This is likely truer today than ever before. We’re no longer living through slow, incremental cultural change. Technology, AI, politics, economics, media, and social norms are now evolving at a pace where places can become fundamentally different within just a few years.

A city, country, or culture isn’t just geography anymore, it’s a snapshot in time. People often argue about places while unknowingly describing entirely different eras of the same location.

The “America” of the 1990s, the “China” of 2002, or even the “Los Angeles” of 2015 may no longer meaningfully exist except in memory.

Barry

This is so true, Derek. I think this post is an eye opener for many of us including me. You know many a times, we fix our experiences and give the same propaganda for others who want to know about that place. I have done this mistake too, I guess. The point is everything is changing, people, place, culture, everything, in fact at a pace faster than ever.

Also, interestingly the same time experience could feel so different to two different people. I have come through this situation a couple of times. We did a local trip to a small village in West India with an office colleague (we are from same state). When I was enjoying the rawness, normalcy, simple local cuisine of this place, she was so irritated by the same experiences.

Tagline is 'Go Experience Yourself' !

This really rings true.

On a related matter, what we experienced (and how we remember) the past—places, people, and events are time-based slices of our lives. You can't go back to any of it, except through memory, and shared memories with others.

But experiencing memories is just as real as what we think we experienced at the time, in the past.

Excellent way to put things in perspective, this reminds me of relativity as well as old parable
You dont step in the same river twice

Well said.

Visiting places I used to live has always felt strange.

Japan especially.

I lived there for over 18 years, and for the last four years I’ve been going back three times a year.

For a while, every return still felt like “coming home.”

But that has slowly changed.

Now, when I’m in Japan, I no longer feel like I am home.

I enjoy being there. I value it deeply.

But I now find myself looking forward to getting home - to the Gold Coast, Australia.

Maybe that is the point.

A place is never just a place. It is a place at a particular time in your life. Japan was home then.

The Gold Coast is home now.

Hi, Derek. As always, a great, intuitive, and inspirational post. Thank you for sharing. I think maybe there's a fifth dimension. As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where I lived for 32 years until six weeks ago, when I moved to Traverse City, Michigan. The fifth dimension, I think, is your connection to the geography, because the experience of being here for the first time as a visitor, not a resident, adds a whole other layer to how I view the surroundings, even those I was once (recently) extremely familiar with. From the moment I stepped off the plane and picked up a rental car instead of my own car in the parking lot, everything felt different. As I sit here now, I am physically in Fort Lauderdale, at a time that I'm pretty familiar with (I was here six weeks ago, and many consecutive years before), yet today it is different. It is no longer home. I don't live here anymore, and thus, for the first time in 32 years, I am experiencing a familiar place through the lens of a visitor... the fifth dimension...

Nostalgia for a time and place is a narrower version of this idea. I love your more expansive version (thinking about connecting time and space for both things I like and things I don't). Thanks for this!

That is a very interesting analysis. It made me think about my hometown. I remember when I like living there. It has changed so much. Some may call it progress, but progress isn't necessary what is best for the city. I have traveled and gone to many places and revisit some of them. The first time it is a wonderful visit because you look with fresh eyes, then on the second visit it wasn't that wonderful.
Very interesting coming to the conclusion that geography is four-dimensional.

I like the article :-)
It reminds me of Alan Watts discussing people asking how things are in a geographical region with an eye to move to a better place. But the wise rebuttal was: "How are things where you are now? It'll be like that here." That is to say your own perspective, attitude, and behaviour will dictate how things are for you wherever you are.

I like this Derek. I grew up in Dublin Ireland and I loved it there. Moved to Sydney Australia for a one year working holiday in 1997, and yeah still in Sydney. I love to visit the states, I love the American people, some of the most decent folks I ever met. Being Irish visiting the states definitely helps with connecting. The Ireland I left is still there, I visit as often as I can. It is not the same country I left. It has developed a confidence it didn’t have when I was a kid. It has had a huge influx of immigrants from all over the world and it has thrived. There are always new challenges with change and I think they are what defines the country over time.

This is so very true. I live in California, USA, and I love it here. I am originally from Germany, but the last time I visited was in 2012. I felt out of place. It was a weird feeling, but it made sense. The last time I lived in Germany was 1999. What my friends there tell me doesn't sound like what I knew.

Love! I think where is bound to when is bound to who ✨️

Maybe even more than 4 dimensions. (If perspective is a dimension.) I’m from America, lived there until I was in my 30’s, moved my family to China for 6 years, then moved back to an America that seems different than the one I left. It’s interesting to talk to my kids about their experiences living in all of the same places that I lived in. Sometimes, you’d swear we were talking about completely different places. Their memories, feelings, and overall attitudes about each of those places are very different than those of my wife and me. Our age/maturity, personal situations, etc affect our perspective of the geography too in ways we don’t notice until we move away from that place/time/situation. Maybe growth is the 6th dimension?

Completely on target. I’ve lived internationally for over 40 years in several different countries. My Jordan cultural experience in 1986-1989 had transformed significantly when I returned in 2018-2025. Not necessarily in a negative way, but in ways that were almost exponential.
There are places I don’t want to return because I prefer to remember them as they were, Kuta, Bali for example.
Your idea of 4 dimensional geography fits these transformations perfectly.
Thank you for stating what seems to be obvious in clear and thoughtful way.
BTW, I am also “American” but I’m more of a tourist when I return now.
Cheers, Greg

Reminds me to say,
“I didn’t like it then.” or
“I loved it when I was there”
The same way some people say, “I’m not good at it yet.” It’s a bit of leeway for you to grow or reconsider.

Fully agree - Whenever someone finds out I'm Argentinian and tell me how they liked some city when they visited it, I always ask "when did you visit _x_ city?" and try to recall the social and economical conditions of that moment.
It's been so long I haven't lived in my home country that I feel rather a stateless person than an Argentinian...

A slightly different perspective and without being cynical (and I’m glad I bought this CD from you…)

“I went back to Ohio and my city was gone.”

I’ve lived a life of 4-D Geography and I’m better for it.

I was born, raised, and educated abroad. One of my parents was American. People call us third culture kids. We are children raised in a culture separate from their parents. I am American and I’m not. I learned this early in life by coming back to the States every few years on vacation when I was a kid. It was, in essence, a trip to a foreign country. And now, as an adult, no matter the era then or now, I am still an immigrant in my own country and at home in the one that was not. And neither of them are the places they were then.

“And that’s alright with me”.

This is such a thoughtful & thought-provoking piece. And as with a lot of your writing, the comments are as much fun reading

this is great framing, Derek. I keep thinking about Bengaluru in the same way all the time, and the change is more rapid and more unevenly distributed

Good point. What if geography has a fifth dimension: your vibration / consciousness. As within, so without.

For example, two people with different attitudes visiting the same place at the same time will have different experiences.

Loved the 4D concept. Born and raised in Atlanta and moved to London and Amsterdam for 5 years with family. The 4d dynamic can happen even within a few years

This is so true and a reminder that we may not ever truly know a place in its true form because it doesn’t exist. As places, like life, is fluid, flexible, resilient and patient with time.

Oh, this makes me nostalgic. I grew up on the west coast of Ireland(Galway). I left at 22 in 2008, and have been in Australia ever since. I long for a culture that was, but I hope, maybe still is Ireland!
Your post made me realise, perhaps it’s not Ireland I miss but a period in Ireland.
Great post

Paul

Very well put! As they say, you never step into the same river twice.

Maybe every claim about a place has a half-life.

Some layers decay slowly: food, architecture, landscape. Others decay fast: prices, safety, slang, politics, neighborhood vibe.

So the next question after “When?” might be: which layer of the place are we talking about?

Hi Derek!

Not sure you remember me but I wrote to you last year about living in Dubai after you were on Tim Ferrisa’ podcast talking about your trip.

Totally agree with this post! I’m British and last lived in the U.K. in 2001 before I moved to the Netherlands. I then lived in Malaysia, back in the Netherlands for a while and then Dubai for the last 15 years. Dubai 15 years ago vs now is unrecognisable in terms of development, their ambition hasn’t changed. The U.K. seems to be going in the opposite direction which is sad but I don’t see that changing any time soon. On holiday in Vietnam a couple of years ago I dragged my husband and kids to Nha Trang where I went in 2001 and it was a cool, backpacker, party beach town. Now it’s all high rise hotels and Russian tourists in speedos! Nostalgia can be a powerful thing 😀.

Hi Derek:
I tend to agree with your interpretation and analysis of the 4 dimensional emphasis of our perceived realities of time, place, space and even people. Living in the present I think gives us a better perspective of life and we should look at its pass and take the positive memories from that and apply that to the present. One man's interpretation of a past experience may look and feel different according to its timeline.
Thanks,
Norma

Reminds me to say,
“I didn’t like it then.” or
“I loved it when I was there”
The same way some people say, “I’m not good at it yet.” It’s a bit of leeway for you to grow or reconsider.

Yes! I love this. When someone asks if I’m Canadian, or Jewish, or like anchovies or whatever, my answer is: “Not yet!” — Derek

And then we, ourselves, change too, interacting and perceiving differently.
One person might surf on a fantastic wave of hospitality while another is just homesick, at approximately the same time and place.

I also noticed this even in my own country. I live in the province when I was younger and moved to the city when I started working. I came back to my hometown and a lot has changed.
It's similar to your other thought about keeping your skills updated, or else it expires.
When you're away too much from a place you once knew, some things stay the same but a lot can also change that you don't recognize it as the place you lived in.

I think same goes for people as well. Circumstances changes and shapes their thoughts and beliefs over time. Someone who appeared to in a certain way long time back most probably would have changed deep inside

Same with people. Helmut today is different person than Helmut from 2002

Yep. I lived in Beijing from 2018-2020 and it was a completely different world compared to when I first visited in 2012. I'm expecting more big change when I likely visit this summer.

I lived in Amsterdam during the early 90s and have fond memories of the place. When I discuss with locals, who still live in my area in Amsterdam, they politely remind me my memories of the place are purely in my head. Things have changed.
However, I prefer my nostalgia of Amsterdam back in the days, because it has sentimental value I could grab on to.
Indeed geography is four-dimensional.

With apologies to trekkies everywhere...
"It's Belfast, Mark, but not as you knew it."

I grew up there and left in the 80s but beam back down for the odd family visit. Set a course for home, Mr Sulu. (Japan for many years.)

"The man who fears change is like a prisoner who has grown fond of his chains. He calls them comfort and calls freedom chaos." - Diogenes, the Doge?

Indeed. Totally agree. Things are changing. Especially this happen quite often for immigrants.

I like this perspective. It holds a lot of truth.

At the same time, you know how we sometimes say that some things never change? I live in Greece for the past 52 years. I travelled to very few places compared to you, of course. I think enough places, though, to help me realize something. Most people are fundamentally the same. Even with cultural differences. There's a baseline that makes us human.

Traveling also helped me appreciate Greece more. I used to complain all the time about how things are broken, how I wished Greeks were more like this and that. Now, I don't. I mean I will whine from time to time. But only to quickly go back to accepting things the way they are. You can't have everything I guess. And when I listen to people moving to Greece from countries like the US, the UK, and more, I am always surprised at how they love more things here that I take for granted.

Having said all that, I agree people may be stuck with stereotypes that were created years ago, but are not true today. Take an example from Greece. If you ask almost every foreigner how Greeks have fun, they will probably mention that we throw and break plates while dancing. We replaced plates with flowers now, LOL.

What I generally try to avoid is take someone's stereotyped idea of how a place is, without a grain of salt. Blanket statements like all Americans are like X, or this city sucks because of XYZ, need an update from time to time :).

Totally agree, I’m only American from 60s, 70s, maybe 80s. I’m NOT American 2024-2028! I wish I could go back to my happy hippy days….

rats (college nickname)

5th dimension - the weather. I’m traveling along the north coast of Spain right now and meeting folks, comparing notes. I live in Bilbao in the Spring, lovely. Others disliked the place, but they were in winter and are not fond of rain. Same place just in a different dimension of temperature or wetness….

Have to agree. I left the US in 2004 and haven't been back even for a visit for the last ten years. The locations were the same, the views were largely the same, but the people were different. Foods, fashions, expectations, activities had all changed. Even the language was different.
One of the benefits of bicultural vision is the ability to see rules are arbitrary, fleeting, and suitable for one tribe at one space/time. But not universal. Yet most people remain monocultural, resisting the relocation bug because it leads to an unclear future with the possibility of uncomfortable changes to something worse, maybe even involving thinking.
As you wrote, the same is true of the fourth dimension, time. Even if we don't leave one familiar setting (hometown, relationship, career) time changes everything anyway. Mostly, in my opinion, for the better from a technology sense. Not sure if society has gotten any better... but maybe that's just me getting older.

There are also islands of a frozen time. In Munich we have a few Russian grocery stores. I don't know the owners, but I bet they have moved to Munich in the nineties. Everything inside screams about that: Russian dolls, vodka, caviar, cheap detective books. Only a carpet on a wall is missing.

But these shops are not special, we all live in the past.

As Marshall McLuhan put it: "We look at the present through a rear-view mirror, so that we march backwards into the future".

Thoughtful perspective. I agree with you...

And sometimes it’s also subjective... the same place can feel completely different to different people, even at the same time.

This totally aligns with my experience as someone who spent 40 years living in a country other than the one I grew up in. Inevitably, your idea of the "old country" freezes when you leave. Meanwhile, things keep changing and evolving--as they should--but memories can't.

There's a great evocation of this idea in the movie Bhaji on the Beach.

What struck me most is that time changes us too. Even if a place stayed exactly the same, we wouldn’t experience it the same way twice because we’re different people each time we return. Memory edits places into stories, and nostalgia quietly fills in the gaps.

Maybe that’s why reunions with old hometowns can feel so strange — you’re not only meeting a changed place, you’re meeting the ghost of your former self there too.

Thank you for your writing. I relate to what you wrote - I have some friends whose parents left Romania in the 70s and up until now they still see it through the eyes of communism and later, through the poverty of the 90s.

I return to Romania often (having left in 2015 to study abroad), and just in 10 years the town I am from flourished into something completely different. The place I left behind is gone, together with the people who also left in the meantime.

I write often about places, as I kept moving in the past ten years to different countries, and the places I long for are all gone. I tried revisiting some of them, but I see only traces here and there. Memories are our time-travelling skill, but even as we remember some things, the thing is that we also changed in the meantime, so I am not sure to what extent we truthfully remember a place.

You are right. Australia is losing its amazing prosperity to a third world
Country. Trump has set the world on a course of uncertainty even collapse. The USA is also losing any of its pride.
I was hoping for whatever life I have left would be prosperity concious based. YouTube is showing amazing videos of how the world can be, my only hope for the young children of today to forfil a life of no wars no famine and a world united in Love and Respect.
Music withe a love energy composed from the heart and soul will assist to guide the future to thr new consciousness that is beginning to emerge.
Ken Davis
International Composer Of
music
www.kendavismusic.com

I own up to being 22, as being 21 doesn't stand single look...

As others have noted about standing in rivers... and it is nearly 40 years since my first central London project opened and is now swallowed by NY like towers.

My almost 20 years in Dubai (almost zero graffiti) saw almost as much change as the previous 20 years and the 20 before that...

Five-D... the place changes like the river, plus we change ( I hope to god we do) and different points of touch become more or less important...

Locations and times shared are even two versions of the same experience, as 'they' bring their baggage, much of which 'you' can't know... language, age, gender and their prior exposures... all 'colour' the glasses tinting so much. The multiverse all in one hand, even... : )))))))

Be safe, have fun, and...

Hello Derek,
Yes it's true how people perceive things differently as time changes everything. Here in the UK it was once the most respectable and cleanest country to live. Everything was fair. Everyone spoke the same language (English) People had to apply to immigrate and was scrutinised and valued to what one had to offer the Country. Not now, Governments and Politicians and their scruples have changed. The arrival of thousands of economic illegals on beaches along the coast who don't speak the language and have criminal intent, think they have a God given right to invade and demand a generous living all at the expense of the working tax payers. Yes, it's not the same UK anymore. It's much worse.

Year ago I was fascinated by the concept of sand mandala. In the end its a perfect metaphor for everything, including this post.

Brilliant. A valuable insight. Condensed to the essential point. Thank you for this gift of insight.

❤️

In general what you describe is true but it depends on the place. Some places like China (China where? I assume you mean the cities) change much faster and more drastic than others. In Japan the face of a place like the buidlings and physical environment (architecture) changes all the time because here buildings are built for perceived lifespan of 30-40 years. But the inner workings of society change slowly and only superficially.

This is so true. I left Scotland in 1983 and have lived in the Netherlands since then. I can’t relate to the UK as much as I did growing up. My sister who stayed there doesn’t quite ‘get it’ & often thinks I’m being a bit pretentious as a result. My brother on the other hand has a broader view and understanding even though he too stayed in Scotland.

Nice to see you've changed the groups of decades regarding who you are/were.

And you put a question mark from 2026 onwards...

I guess we should always be different people, who are shedding different skins in life until we die, eh?

As for the geography, yeah, places can and do change too, unless it's a small town/village in rural England. :)

I watched a travel vlog yesterday where the owner of the channel was visiting China for the 6th time. My thoughts echoed was people typically think about that, especially if they haven't been there recently.

I have some sorts of a similar feeling: the places where I lived and loved, I feel a reluctance to visit again. Somehow they need to stay as they were when I was there.

Hi Derek
Yes this is an important observation. Another dimension is our state at the time we were in a particular place. I was in LA in the seventies and eighties and enjoyed it. Not sure it would be the same for me now. The same with London or anywhere.
I'm working through the Positive Intelligence program with my coach and have just contacted the essence of who I am through a photo of myself as a child with my mum. Not sure where it was, but I certainly looked happy! It could probably have been anywhere.

Interesting Derek, thanks for sharing!

That resonate with everything I have experienced. I think you define life by the present.

Het is Moro or les a statistical general Truth yes. Countries better cultures are not United so in time the majority but small parts stay more in the past for a while parallel to a small part that evolves much faster and from the standpoint of the general population their ideas are in the future. So when two persons meet each other different combinations of conclusions are possible depending on where on the statistical scale they experienced the past. The problem of language is generalizations and category. Every meaning of a word comes out of a category and a category is a fixed past definition. So our memories that give meaning are better holds meaning is a generalized meaning. Only the truth that can never change is immune to generalization as in the end it is the foundation of consciousness itself, 😉

I agree on your concept of four dimensions of geography. The five themes of geography only take you so far in knowing a place. You do have to be there and experience it.

The people of a place are that fourth dimension. They shape the geography beyond the obvious five themes.

I was reminded of that as my daughter graduated college this week. I had worked at the institution she graduated from. I did not like the direction the new leader was taking and I exited.

The place I left had a different fourth dimension during graduation. I was impressed by what I saw and I was happy to see what I was experiencing.

I think useful not true ties into your post. You need to know the truth of a place before you make a real assessment.

Thank for the post.

so so true as an inmigrantr to america and leave most of my life in south florida i seen many waves of change ,definitely waves stronger than any individual also america as being a very dynamic society a lot more open to change ,while in older cultures in different parts of the world specially gerontocracyes they deal with change confront it with denial ,ho whale....

You are absolutely correct. Time matters in most instances. I’m from TN and live in NC. My experience in TN seems to be outdated, however, I can still “feel” the racism I lived through as a child and teenager. The place has grown in size, but not in culture. I totally agree with you though.

Such a useful observation. I moved to Miami a few years ago and the neighborhood I live in was ‘invented’ in 2007, so many Miami natives who have left the city have never even heard of it, even though it’s my daily reality!

Very relatable and I can right now liken it to humans, we definitely aint today as we were yesterday

Awesome post Derek. So true and has me thinking of all the countries and experiences had over the years, and how the discussions with others about them resonate with your words. Will certainly be asking, when, from now on.

Yes agreed.
All we really have is a moment in time.
That’s the reality we have.
That is what we remember.
I used to work in healthcare and we’d occasionally be subject to an inspection. We would request remedial work to be done for example cupboards to be painted and sometimes they would only be painted the day of the inspection, as in at 06.00.
The inspectors would notice nothing. That was the new reality. They were happy with the cupboards. There was nothing to see.
The previous reality (and cupboards) replaced.

Derek — this is a beautiful frame. Where is bound to when. Past tense only, unless you're standing there now.

I'd add a fifth dimension: who.

Yes true. It wuld be nice if our schools taught critical thinking - or thinking on more than one flat idea welded to the surface. Here in America right now I get the feeling that nature/God is hoping we will re define ourselves

Completely agree, and I think it goes beyond just geography.

It also depends on the lens we carry inside ourselves. The same place, the same person, the same event , but with a different inner perspective, it becomes an entirely different experience.

So maybe the real question isn't just "when were you there?" but also "who were you when you were there?"

So wonderfully true and provocative. I’ve been fortunate to live and work in a number of countries and the question that has often stumped me is, “what’s it like there?” Your perspective has given me a frame by which to answer. E.g. I can speak about Moscow in 2012, NOT 2026.

I love this take - and I also know that as far as places have evolved, I've also changed, so my perspective on a place I knew has adjusted as well.

I left England just a short 7 years ago - we've both come a long long way baby!

"Things do not change, we change" - Thoreau

Thanks for sharing Derek.

Derek,
Whether it be a company you formed or a city you lived in, you can NEVER go back!
It's the experience you have at that time is what you fall in love with.

Just take our two companies! You distributed our jazz shows. YouTube streams our tv shows which I hired the late Charlie Byrd to produce all original music background for the 800 cooking shows from around the world. Last week I received notification that they can't pay me streaming because CD Baby owns the music! I never signed off nor sold my music to CD Baby. Things changed and I just shrugged it off. I'm 88 and it's not worth fighting..... just move on.

Couldn't agree with you more living in OC California over the last 40 years and growing up in a small northwestern "burb" of Chicago!

My family came to the USA in 1951 after escaping Czechoslovakia from Nazi and Communist tyranny. My dad was a very proud Czech serving as a lieutenant in the Czech army before being ordered to stand down and having his country be taken over by the Nazis and ultimately by the Commies.

My dad's years in America were fruitful and his service to this country was second to none. It included a civil engineer, policeman, canine instructor (dogs bred in Czechoslovakia), EMT, active member of the Lions Club and finally a crossing guard for children at a local Catholic school. He passed away in 1992 and would not recognize what's happened to America over the last 3-4 decades which is exactly your point!

I just finished writing a book "Preserving Freedom" about my family's (mom, dad and brother) journey escaping Czechoslovakia, their successful transition to America and the influence it had on my son, Tom. I will be going back to the Czech Republic in September to retrace many of my family's steps and it will be one hell of a bucket list item for me to experience. Lest we forget the freedom we have and how fragile it is!

Really loving this expanded viewpoint, thanks!

space and time are bound by the speed of light. einstein, feynman and sivers.

Totally.
Reminds me of the Heraclitus quote: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."

I agree. 1991 I went on vacation to the Maldives. The tiny island (mostly palm trees), the blue water, the colorful fish and corals - it seemed to me like paradise. I was sure: If ever I get married, this is, were I´d like to spent my honeymoon. 10 years later I went back : The corals had died, the palmtrees were gone and the space was used to get rid of trash, produced by tourists. This was 2001. I don´t want to know what the place looks like today...
2004 I was working in New Delhi, India for a few months. I loved the little markets, the traditional stores and stuff. 2017 I went back to find huge shopping malls with the same kind of stuff I can buy at home. I still feel disappointed.

Yes I too feel this way but never thought of it as 4th dimension. After growing up in Denver I lived in SF from 90 to 98, LA 98-2000, NYC 2000-‘23. I’m now in PNW. Each of those cities have changed a ton. It seems nostalgia has folks say oh it was so much better back then……. Tho your China example is good. People talk about how great nyc was in the 80s and 90s. But every single person had been mugged at least 1x. I never was accosted in nyc or have anything stolen except for 3 bikes locked outside in my 20+ years….

I now think I’m 4 dimensions!

Time remains the only constant. A snapshot in. Otherwise evolution to entropy.

My Norwegian grandparents settled in the far northwestern corner of Minnesota. My earliest memories include our farmhouse where life was still wonderfully simple. There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing -- just the rhythm of daylight, wood heat, “honest work” and the quiet strength of people who made do with what we had.

On my last visit to the now abandoned farmstead, the major concern of my kids was how they would get a Wi-Fi signal.

Good night, John Boy.

My dear friend… hi mate,
So great to hear from you and to read your piece.
It brought up so many things for me… but especially a big YES! Because I have had all those experiences myself, and heard them from others.
Last year, a friend of mine who is from the UK and now lives (as you do) in New Zealand, returned to visit her father just out of London. I said, “Oh how wonderful, I love London”. She asked, “When were you last there?” I told her it was back in 1987. She returned from a few weeks stay in London and reported to me that it was busy, dirty, etc… all the usual things people say upon returning someplace. I firmly believe that we should not ever return to a place, especially if we like it, because the present moment(s) will never live up to the past memories. :-))
Just over a year ago my wife and I returned to her home in China for a family visit. We’ve visited many times before and always had a great time. This time was fraught with all sorts of problems. We didn’t enjoy it.
And I could add to your story about LA, and San Francisco, where I have lived for a short time… years ago… about great days and exciting memories, only to have them dashed against the rocks on return visits.
I can only reiterate my feelings about this… to go back, to return is to visit for the first time… it’s like we hit the ‘RESET BUTTON’… because each time is so dependent on our current state of consciousness at that time, and the attendant conditions arising and departing. Of course now, as a long-time student and practitioner of Buddhist Dharma Zen philosophies, I can more clearly see that each moment is just that… a tiny moment attached to a breath. We breath in… this is a moment… we breath out, that is another… and so on. I know that you know exactly what I mean, so don’t need to bore you with the sermon. :-)).
But I am more aware of ‘moments’ now as they rise and fall, come and go… than I was twenty years ago. Does that knowledge make it easier to navigate the obstacles of life (and travel)? Well yes, I believe so. Because even if I am disappointed with a meet up of old friends, or re-visiting a town or city I’ve held in my heart for so long… and it is ‘not the same’ for me, I know that it is me that may have changed, or it’s just a shitty day… the weather is crap, or the people are in a bad mood, or I am not at my best… whatever, it’s just a moment. Conditions rising and falling away. Moment to moment. Everything is in flux, constantly. It maybe (and quite often is, for me) the people I am with at that moment. Other people’s agendas, moods, needs, or lack of interest, etc… all have a direct influence on me and MY MOMENTS…and now I am aware of that, I can remove myself from the picture - practice non-attachment and mindful present-moment-awareness, and just enjoy the ‘new moment’ for what it is, and leave it at that. I now know that if I return on another day, soon or in the future… I may have a better experience… HOWEVER, I will NEVER repeat the memory… can’t replay it, because it doesn’t actually exist.
Loved reading your piece brother. It stimulated a thought process in me and helped me to clarify how I deal with the same ‘story’. It’s great to re-connect with you and be able to converse with an intelligent real human being… a deep thinker. I often think about you and wonder if you are still living in NZ, and I am always grateful that our paths crossed many years ago when I first started uploading my music albums to CB Baby… and, although my relationship with them is not the same… (I seem to always have to have ‘conversations’ with AI Bots instead of a team member… in so many businesses now… and I hate it)… I am very grateful that I started when you were the Founding CEO and you actually email-replied to little guys like me. And that my friend is the ONE thing that has not changed. We are still talking. Blessings to you.
And I am very grateful for your friendship.
Take care Derek.
Hugs,
Pete Morley
ZEN MUSIC
www.zenmusic.biz

PS - this week I have just uploaded my latest smooth avant jazz album, “Not Famous - Just Peter Morley” and I am about to finish another one… album #52. Thanks so much for your assistance over the years. You are still an important element in my evolution as an independent artist. 🙏🏼🌹😎🎸
Australia

I always love your perspective, Derek. It shakes me from my cognitive Kansas. You're so right. Time is a critical factor is our experiences, and also in our perceptions of those experiences. And now, in the new world of AI, our perceptions, which have largely been based upon a healthy dose of reality, will increasingly be based upon something entirely different.

Derek, the whole world has changed in some way. Technology being the driver of wide change. That in turn made the world smaller. I can't speak for people in other countries, but we the people of America have relaxed and taken our eyes off of what made America... America. First and foremost, we have left God out of our lives which this country was founded upon. Families have left the teaching and learning of our young folks to the schools to take care of. My mother read a bible verse to me everyday and explained it to me each time. When both parents had to go work to make ends meet, to have anything, America lost the teaching of the home. America is the same, "we're" not. If we could put away our cells a day or two each week and just "see" each other again, go back to America's foundational values, the America we knew would come flooding back. I could go on, but I will leave with this... There's a coffee shop down the road and I swear a criminal could rob the place and no one would see anything. They're all sitting around on their cellphones playing games or trolling the internet. Bingo.

So very true. And we have no idea what the future will really be like for any place! For instance the advance of ai! Who would have imagined what’s happening now say 5 years ago! Life imitates art and vice versa it seems!

I agree-
Places, people, values and philosophies change daily let alone after decades pass. There also seems to be a cycle of change while older generations yearn for past times and ways.
ps Los Angeles is still awesome. Just a few hiccups-

Derek... You're mostly right ! I just had my 81st birthday so have been through many iterations of this "experiment" ! The halcyon 1950s, the vibrant and turbulent 60s, the evolving 70s, the retro-ish 80s, the world wide web 90s, the fall-of-the-dream 2000s, the beginnings of the "far right" madness and the "damn, we didn't learn anything from the 10s, and now it seems like we're "beyond f _ _ ked" in the 2os ! Is there hope that we'll make it through this ignorant "cluster f" ? Hard to tell, but I wouldn't want to bet on it or debate it with anyone ! So, the: "there's nothing as constant as change" mantra becomes the dominant zeitgeist, I guess ? : (

I love how you always make me think, Derek, and this one has me going deeper. I think every memory is a snapshot taken by a specific version of you, shaped by what you believed and felt at the time. So it's not just that places change. We're never really remembering what happened. We're remembering our experience of it, filtered through a self that's already moved on.

And over the last few years I've learned a lot about how memory actually works, and it makes this even more interesting. Our brains actually build our memories on the fly when we need them as kind of a simulation, and who we are right now bleeds into that reconstruction. So the memory keeps shifting with us. The place changes. We change. And then our memory of both changes, too.

It all lends to your point about how many things in the world are actually true or not.

I think about this almost every day. I'm nostalgic for mid-2000s NYC. Even though I visit frequently, that time and place is so deeply ingrained in me that I rarely experience NYC the way it is today - I only see it with old eyes. But then my friends and family who live there daily bring me back to reality and tell me NYC is no longer the way I describe. Both can be right in a weird kind of way, I guess.

Love it.

Related...
I travelled in India for six weeks over the new year in 2007/8.
A cab driver was asking me about American politics, asking "Who do you think will win in the Presidential election?"
"I'm not sure," I said.
"What about Prime Minister Georgie Bush," he asked.
"Not possible," I said.
He said, "I like Mrs. Bill Clinton."

I was struck by the time-space-gender continuum, and thought, "Oh, Mrs. Bill Clinton would have something to say about that."

Derek, you are right on the money. I’ve been many places in the world but my experiences are just frozen snapshots in time. Well done! For those who have stayed in one place for many years, many want the inevitable evolution to stop and even return to the sepia tinted good old days. Those who pursue the return to retro wind up making their own new reality, usually for the worst. The world moves on regardless.

I’ve been a quiet fan all these years. Carry on.

Kindly, Jess
Now in Taos, NM

Just like a picture of me in 1974 and my current mirror are technically the same face. The feeling of your old home town is the same as it ever was because a part of your brain holds on to the memory. Although it's not an entirely accurate memory. The feeling attached to it might stay the same.
I have come to realize the same thing about books, music and movies. I listen to some of the songs I loved at the age of 12 and the residual memory of the original feeling comes through - but my now experienced brain thinks "what a piece of trash this was".
Some places do hold up better than others because they change slower. If you come from a small town in Kansas it wont change quite as fast as L.A.
Mostly I try to live here and now because the past is not what I think it is and the future is fluid.

I feel this. I've been so lucky to have lived in so many places when they were great. Lucky Lucky Lucky!

Yes agreed.
All we really have is a moment in time.
That’s the reality we have.
That is what we remember.
I used to work in healthcare and we’d occasionally be subject to an inspection. We would request remedial work to be done for example cupboards to be painted and sometimes they would only be painted the day of the inspection, as in at 06.00.
The inspectors would notice nothing. That was the new reality. They were happy with the cupboards. There was nothing to see.
The previous reality (and cupboards) replaced.

A similar "principle" is that no sibling grows up in the same family: even as little as a one year difference puts that sibling in a different reality.

This is wise and a brilliant observation. It makes me think that relationships are a lot like this too. We only remember what was true then, but sometimes our information is old or out of date. Places change, and so can we.

Thanks for inviting me to share Derek, what you wrote about places being memories or four dimensional, that resonates. Very poignant, tugs at my heart strings for some reason actually. And it reminds me.. Have you heard of the Retcon Effect? Or as it is also known the Mandela Effect? Seems relevant here. Some folks chuckle but others have experiences related to this kind of thing they can't explain rationally. Myself included. Perhaps your dimensions of which you speak are objective yet displaced parallel worlds which are inhabited by folks just like ourselves wondering if WE actually exist or if it's all just too silly to even bother contemplating, who really knows?

It seems your comments are true. They also can be applied to all actress and pinup girls I liked when I was younger: now that they and myself become older, they don’t have the same appeal to me like in the past! 😅

I think you’ve got it covered. If we’re lucky to be present in the moment, every place we’re in is just a snapshot in time of the memory one collects.
Also, since you have collected memories of others, the biases of the individual cloud and reinforce an ethnocentric view seemingly extreme.

A great observation, and perfect turn of phrase. 4th Dimension. Thank you. Having lived in a lot of countries, I am guilty of using dated memories. Some rose tinted glasses in there for me. Different levels of success, age, passions at the time skewing those views as well.

Nostalgia. Sad. I've experience that over and over. I've seen such beauty and wildness that is none existent now. As far as values I was raise with a value system that belonged in the generation behind the one I was born into. It's as if one is out of sinc by the time they reach 16 or 19. Serious, how can education out run the shifting values, contexts, and who are these people of yesteryear!
Sneak previews do come with flexible, independent, think-for-yourself salvation or simply, think and be kind. Keep life alive.
I loved Los Angeles, and experience so much creativity, nature and animated wonder. I miss most of all the plant life of Los Angeles. That seems to still exist to a point. Certain architecture of Los Angeles I miss, I also ignored the underbelly. It is really odd but my fondness is the plant life of Los Angeles first.
San Francisco same thing. Amazing place gone.
You can't go back, therefore build a world you want to go to the best you can.Keep life alive. Thank you.

Hi Derek,
I love what you wrote about in terms of times and places changing. If you were to come to PDX now you would find homeless people everywhere sleeping on the streets. The police don't arrest people, the Mayor has used the City budget to buy buildings for the homeless to love in, but they prefer to sleep on the side of the street on next to the freeways with the few pieces of their junk piled up next to were they sleep. The worst thing however is that they can buy Fentanyl from the drug pushers who they City will not arrest. The downtown is the worst... Fortunately, where I live The rich people live there is none of this. Today I am not rich, but my house is paid off and I still live in the same house where I lived when you started CD Baby... The Governor, Mayor and elected representatives here are mostly Democrats who have made them themselves rich. Their following the old saying "Let them eat the little cakes" Do you know who said that ???

This really resonated with me.
The only time I visited the US was February 2020. I booked a 10 day trip the previous fall around one certain date, a show in Boston - one of my favorite bands on tour playing my favorite album ever in its entirety. I arrived to NY a few days before. As a millennial growing up in Hungary I watched SATC episodes multiple times before I really understood them or understood English to that level. Visiting Manhattan was something I dreamed of ever since and it happened just days before the whole world went upside down. I feel I was so lucky to saw the tail end of the "before" even if that was not exactly what I saw in the series. Oh and the show was amazing too!

Heraclitus said "no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man" but you've added something missing: you can step out of the river, come back years later, and still think you know it. Memory freezes a place while the place never stops flowing.

Hi Derek, Thanks for sharing your perspective. I feel that overall culture has changed significantly in recent years in terms of lifestyles, politics, and professions. At the same time, I think how much has changed depends on where in the world people live. Some centuries old traditions, better or worse, have held fast, while other cultures are more progressive and pliable. Some changes like modern conveniences, advances in medicine, technology have helped some societies, but not everyone has access to these things enough. I think society as a whole will be at its best when more people can show compassion, contribute to the greater good no matter where they are in the world.

Is the same for people : do you know john Smith? Yes , he is a rude guy ..... when did you see him last time ? 5 years ago ..... now john is polite .
This example is not True for all people of course , only for those never stop to learn .

This has so precisely describes what I couldn’t put my finger on for so long.
I’ve lived abroad for 19 of my 44 years of life and I still reflect on what things used to be like “back home”.

Bit they’re not anymore.
For good or for bad.

And that’s okay.

I love how well you bring this point out. I use a similar concept with people. When talking to clients who are grieving a broken relationship, I explain that person they loved is not here anymore. Although the person he loved still looks the same, the fourth dimension is gone.
I will be using your example as a parable to explain it better.

Thank you for sharing

Reminds me of when Bill Gates said that Mexico City used to look like other developing countries just as far back as the 1980s.

This is bang on! It's always about the memories we have of those places - in that time - not of those places as they are now - hence it's always good to remember, and be present at the same time when visiting those places again :)

Thank you for sharing Derek! All the times that you reference LA in the 90s also triggers my own fond memories of going to school, working and dating there. When I return, I still have those memories, but I am struck by all of the other LA issues and ask myself, "Was the 405 really this horrible when I lived here?!?! Why do people drive so fast?" Thank you again for helping me understand these fond memories. Do we do the same with people? I suppose that the girl I had a crush on when I was a teenager might be a little different a few decades later.

I think it's a good call-out!

Hip-Shot Hot Takes:
I wonder if people sometimes overlook the factor of a place changing with time because (a) as someone called out some places change less than others which confuses the issue (b) if you're in a place while its changing slowly, you might sort of miss it a la slowly boiling frog principles (c) people collect their travel experiences like Pokemon; it's possible that that travel memory loses ego-value the more it's "out-of-touch," so people are inclined to freeze a place in their head.

...America feels VERY different today than it did when Bush was president. I'll leave that one right there :D.

Hi Derek,
You SOLD CDBaby? That seemed so sacred.
Yes, you can never "go back". The only thing about life is that it is constantly changing. "Time" IS the 4th dimension. My Mom (Happy Mother's Day 2U by the way.) immigrated from Germany in 1952. When she married, she wanted to show my Dad where she had come from. The honeymooned in Germany and Mom was so sad at the changes. Friends who had moved on, yada, yada...
Take care of your hands! I did much writing before I retired. I now have "protective exercises" that I do to ward off arthritis in my Right thumb...
Best wishes, -Heidi

"Time keeps on tickin' tickin' tickin'...into the future." -Fly Like An Eagle, -Steve Miller Band (many moons ago)

I describe Auckland in a similiar sense. I had felt like a big fish in a small pond all my life on the east coast of Virginia, and had long suspected somewhere in California would probably suit me better... yet I hadn't moved. Then, on one of those days that felt like a movie script (which I love to retell), I met my wife on her double-business trip from NZ via the UK.

We texted daily for the next 3-months until she asked if I wanted to visit NZ—I had a flight booking within the hour. Auckland in 2014 was everything I had dreamed; the streets felt clean, there were takeaway food stalls every other block, and it was the most walkable, big-little city I had ever experienced. I wanted to live there immediately and within a few years, her business travels wrapped up, I got a Visa, and we got a flat together.

We still live here and I still have a love for the city that showed me I could make the other side of the planet my home, but the streets I once believed were spotless haven't maintained the same starry-eyed appeal. New buildings have risen which are nice to look at, while the ground floors of others can look barren and sad. The city is not the same, but it never would be. Just like time standing still* when I first saw my wife (*no joke that it felt like a BIG FISH moment), my first visit to Auckland in 2014 will remain as it was in my mind; pristine, inviting, and just what I had needed.

Derek - very perceptive and well taken. Describes my own experiences well, apart from America as with you: Moscow - a place I lived and spent time over decades and now no more, and perhaps never more; Riyadh - went in the 1990s and hated it and again a couple of years ago and was another place, and one I thoroughly enjoyed and was impressed by. Other examples come to mind, and I will certainly think of your framing going forward.

By the way, when people ask me whether I miss Moscow, I reply that I do not because the Moscow I miss does not exist anymore...

Thanks for sharing and warm regards

I love when people, places and things change, even if not for the better, in my view, as this reminds that "my view" is singular, narrow, and rooted in my perspective. I enjoy being reminded of my own insignificance. I find it healthy.

I say this all the time it's not just where it's when! I have also lived in many places including multiple countries, time is a crucial factor!

So true. And America is getting to the point where it's not the same as it was LAST WEEK, much less last decade.

Hey Derek,
I so enjoyed reading this post and all the comments!
Yes, geography's definitely 4D or possibly more as many have pointed out.
When I first went to Halle in East Germany, my professor took me to my room in a dorm and it was late at night, and raining. He was carrying a bag with some sheets and a blanket for me but when he opened the door, he was so shocked. The room was cold, so cold, the floor had an old carpet and it was humid. There were no curtains. He kept on apologizing that he hadn't time to check the room. It didn't bother me but I could see that it bothered him. So I replied, "oh it's fantastic!" and he just stopped speaking. The next day, he came by early and took me to a supermarket to buy a few items and in a few days, the room looked great, so great that I rented it for another 3 years. He sadly passed away suddenly after 3 years and I went back a year later. This time the people at the University gave me a new room. It felt like a room in a hotel. I, somehow, felt that's the room that he always wanted for me but he wasn't around to see it. But the place just wasn't the same without him. Things change, that's a constant, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse but if we're wise and lucky, we keep the good memories.
I hope that you're keeping well and enjoying your time with your son.
Best wishes,

Such a useful observation. I moved to Miami a few years ago and the neighborhood I live in was ‘invented’ in 2007, so many Miami natives who have left the city have never even heard of it, even though it’s my daily reality!

I dumbfounded my parents and relatives a little bit when my husband and I tried to incorporate "traditional" Chinese wedding practices into our wedding ceremony in Los Angeles 2023.

Nobody present had lived in China since the Cultural Revolution. Most relatives were born in Taiwan or in the States. So we were pulling from random source material.

Well, we had fun imagining!

Great article. Yes it is always time + space to complete the story - just like Einstein's theory of relativity. We all can relate to this - for example in my case, I know India is very different now than what I had experienced when I was living there.

I'd add an extra dimension for who you are at a given time. You change through your life and today's version of you will encounter a geography differently than the geography from 20 years ago even if the place itself has not changed. You can never go home again.

I've always thought like that. I always to refer to "John Ford Mexico" and the Vietnam War Vietnam when I'm talking about those places that I haven't been to in so many years. And John Ford is even a misnomer as my vision of Mexico is from his movies, and other movies are not even from my own experience.

Hi, these are the enevitable results of when someone sees themselves as a product of a culture from the existant variety. However, if the value of what a human actually is, accompanies one in their sojourn on Earth, then one does'nt get stuck in a "time" they are experiencing at any particular time [as man see's it].
That is why great "Sages" "Mystics" etc., use the body conciously as a vehicle that they do not call "themselves" as they are somewhat aware of what true, real time is.

That's true also from a physical point of view, the universe geometry is spacetime :)

Present is to live and memory is to keep, quite nature to me.

But yes, to others, its quite different to say, eg. I came from China versus I came from China, where... at that time...

Yes and this has implications:
1) 4D objects leave a 3D shadow. So your beliefs, behaviours can be fully 3D. Nuanced, articulated, real in every sense, and yet just a shadow. (Plato’s Cave allegory anyone?)
2) Even the economic, geographic definitions of a place change. Just watch a timelapse of the nations of the world map over the last 100 or even 30 years. Geography, or rather our description of geography is not as solid as we believe.
3) Perspective is always both individual and rose tinted. Even places I remember hating (because of the experience at the time) like boarding school or Air Force bootcamp have such delightful details in my memory, the smell of woodsmoke in winter, the pay phone I used to call friends and family, the sun setting behind me as I left the gates for a weekend, make me remember a place with unreasonable fondness.

When you visit or live in a place, say 1984 West Germany and your developmental life stage, 23 year old buff good looking Soldier, definitely affects your perception of place. I will not elaborate but I enjoyed that period almost to a fault. Sadly, a lot of Germans and Americans have told me negative things about Germany in the 2020's. While Waiblingen, an affluent suburb of Stuttgart appears to be fairly untouched by say immigration tension, I am sure inflation, the hotter drier climate, and other issues have probably changed the town I loved dearly during my deployment to West Germany. One example, trains ran like clockwork in 1984 and train travel was fantastic. My son took a train while traveling in Germany recently and had to sit on the floor because the train overbooked. The train also ran late. Years of underspending have really hurt what was once a world class train system known for efficiency. On a more positive note, the London I visited in 1984 was not so great doing the bus tour but in 2024, London had cleaned up and it is my favorite capitol city in Europe though I have not been to Prague.

My wife returned to Finland after 25 years away, afraid it would be nothing like her childhood.

She was thrilled to discover it was still the same in essence-- civilized, clean, social, egalitarian.

But her friends and family said she "spoke Finnish like an old-fashioned person!"

Hello Derek,

Thank you for sharing your story. I’m still reading it — very interesting. What’s even more interesting is discovering your music. You have quite a beautiful voice and really wonderful songs.

I’ve listened to two of them so far, “Ready to Live” and “Flexible,” and both are very beautiful. I’m honestly surprised you haven’t made music videos for these songs yet. They have a lot of feeling and deserve to be heard by more people.

Wonderful music. God bless.
Richard Spasoff

open.spotify.com/artist/2sVmIClp15hZs8perdErau?si=yg222BtVRQWl3-WVWGx3Kg

Living overseas for the last 15 years and every year that I'm back in both Slovenia (home country) and Singapore (where I spent a decade) I am reminded of this. You meet people, see buildings and habits and while on the surface the may be this sameness about them, if you barely scratch the surface you realize it's not even remotely the same. The places have changed, just as I have. And no amount of effort will turn back time, it's like trying to insert a square peg in a round hole.

No man enters the same river twice.

An interesting perspective. Or, there's only one dimension: the unique experiences and feelings of an individual in that place.

I have a little understanding of Wittgenstein's ideas. "Somewhere at some time" is more complete than "somewhere." When people say "somewhere," they fall into the trap of misusing language

No matter where you are, be the best version of yourself ever while being there. Not only will you affect your own perception of the location, you will also affect others perceptions and outcomes too. If we all do this in our respective locales, we will have just created an amazing global community!

It somehow teminded me of Toni Morrison and Beloved (p. 47)

Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place—the picture of it—stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don’t think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.”

This is so true. This applies to my home country, the UK:
- 80 pounds for a plate of sandwiches
- Dirty trains
- Skyscrapers in London
- Working class areas with homes worth millions of pounds, and sky-high rents (resulting in Europe's largest homeless population).

This is so true I was born in 1952 in
Brooklyn.
I relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1982, but unlike Tony Bennett, I left my heart in Brooklyn. Even though I like living in California, I carry a great sense of pride for being raised in a place that only one word is needed to describe and everyone knows where you are talking about.
The Brooklyn diaspora is huge, but we are an exclusive club. Whenever two strangers meet and discover they're both from Brooklyn, a silent signal passes between them that says, "We are from a special place, and we have emerged and thrived via some combination of street smarts, toughness, humor (sarcasm), or indifference (fuhgeddaboutit!)
But your piece on the 4th dimension of geography has me questioning my assumptions.
Perhaps my Brooklyn pride is simply nostalgia for a place in Time?
My Brooklyn is stick ball and stoop ball and any number of iterations of our national past time played with a pink Spaldeen.
It's not 90-story skyscrapers, vente latte's, or Uber Eats.
-- Edwin, From Brooklyn (resides in Yountville, Calfornia)

Amen to this! Born in Houston, Texas in 1982, raised between there in Los Angeles until 1988, then raised in Irving Texas through 1998, then Long Beach through 1999, then Dallas through 2013, then Vallejo California through 2016, Then Dallas again through the beginning of the pandemic, then an hour east of Dallas on a 2 acre farm omcr the pandemic made cities look like a terrible idea, & even that small amount of time (2020-2025) Dallas changed hugely. Now I live in San Francisco proper, and it is not the SF people even warned me about one or two years ago, with a shit on the streets and highest rent: I work in San Jose and pay the lowest rent available in the Bay Area… In San Francisco, because they finally capped the Rent. Things change more quickly than anyone can keep up with. Places, rather.

Well… everything. Adapts.

So very true. And we have no idea what the future will really be like for any place! For instance the advance of ai! Who would have imagined what’s happening now say 5 years ago! Life imitates art and vice versa it seems!

Are we ever fully present? Or are am I just responding as per previous programming? I will retire to a safe space, re-watch The Matrix and consider...

Thank you.

This is like Parmenides' - "you can never stand in the same river twice."

In mediaeval cartography, maps were made up from a series of nodal points- ie there is the city and a river, maybe a monster or mountain, and everything else uncharted...

It was two dimensional.

Things changed and I get what you're saying but it relies on objective reality- it's not subjective.

Last week I wrote a birthday card to my 16 year old daughter.
My 16 is different to her 16.

Maybe geography is five dimensional, the fifth subjective.

My "job" (I'm an architect) is to make other people believe in an imaginary world.

It means that my geography is different than someone else's landscape.
It's not real.- Yet!

Your world is probably different too, even if we're standing in the same place.

If you could imagine a utopian future landscape or cityscape what would it look like?

Hi Derek,
Read. your article Geography is four dimensional. I do agree
one of my friends from OHIO,USA visited me, Baramati town in maharashtra state of India. He had xome here 30 yra when we were studying at medical college and was amazed to see changed town and medical facilities in small town
keep writing and sharing
Dr.Raj

Once again, a simple truth about the illusion of creating a stable world around us, a world we'd like know. But "Look what they have done to my song....". It feels as if I was in a video game of eternal change, not realising, that I'm constantly alternating levels. What I see is what should help me to evolve. Be it war, be it love, be it people. I'm growing into myself by looking at a world I have created - consciously or (most likely) unconsciuosly. So, looking back is like dreaming. If it's a nightmare, I am the one to make the change.
Thanks for inspiring moments!

Derek, when I was a teenager (around 1988) Ryuichi Sakamoto's music impressed me by the beauty and peacefulness. His musics faded in my playlists, possibly because other artists got my attention. Today I discovered you played at his band and this raises the memory of that beauty.
Right now I'm listening to his music again and the memories become vivid while writing.
I agree that "where is bound to when". I lived in NZ in 1990 and this experience made me find happiness. At 50 I decided to move here with my family to give more space and time to happiness. Things changed, people changed, the local culture changed, I believe all for better. When is also bound to where we want to be!

Nice thought Derek, and I might add:
Geography isn’t just four-dimensional—it’s also personal. Places don’t only change over time, our perception of them changes too. That’s why childhood places always feel smaller when we return. It’s not just that the world evolved—we did. So every place exists not only in time, but in the version of ourselves that once experienced it. And sometimes, in special places, only a specific smell remains unchanged—quietly unlocking memories that everything else seems to have left behind.

Hey Derek,

Always good to hear from you. And your 4-Dimensional Geography is quite right & spot-on! I've lived in Switzerland for the past 32+ years, since leaving Chicago in '93. And I must admit that every time I've returned to the USA, the social vibe & changes feel increasingly more "remote" to me? Especially during the past 20+ years. Additionally, the same is true for all my former "haunts" in Europe. The old adage, "Nothing stays the same" is certainly true here! And the USA that both you & I grew-up in is not the same place it was when we were there! Anyway, nothing extremely "revelatory" to mention here? But certainly agree with living in our current, 4th Dimensional World!

Hi Derek,

It depends also of your sunglasses. Are they black or pink ?
Two people can be at the the place, at the same tim and experience the place in two different, even opposite ways.

xxx from Paris

Interesting. True, Croatia changed so much since I left that it feels like a different country now.
It seems to me that developed places got worse for ordinary people, you can see social inequality grew cause the profits of the digital age went to the few. And developing places like China improved and modernized.

Excellent observation, Derek.
Sam (2026-05-06) wrote: "Maybe your preferences have changed". Sure preferences change. But countries change probably more. While you are there you might not notice the change because it happens slowly. In my case I have been away from Austria for a long time and now being back I see how much has changes. It is indeed like a cultural shock.
M 2 cents.

The question I ask: are we changing faster than our surroundings? Change is a given.

Hey Derek,
Love this. And it made me think - sometimes time is an even bigger connector than place. Growing up in the 90s, I associate more with people who lived through that era anywhere in the world than with people from my same geography at a different time. Movies like Air tap into that - all of us 90s kids felt the nostalgia regardless of where we watched it.
There's an old show called Ed - a guy leaves his small town for New York, then comes back to woo his high school girlfriend. I watched it from Singapore and it caught something I hadn't named - a longing to go back to the small town I grew up in. Not because of the place. Because of the time.
Your piece names where-is-bound-to-when. I think the reverse is just as true — when-is-bound-to-where. We carry a version of a time the same way we carry a version of a place.

Human geography can be also four-dimensional.
No one is the same coordinate twice.
If the present pleases you, live it with urgency, for it has an expiration date.
If the past was difficult, give the future a second chance.
Time doesn’t just bring wrinkles, it builds new foundations.
We are all time travelers within ourselves.

Yep, spacetime is a thing and this is a new way of expressing it 🙂

100%, what's more, people are also four-dimensional. So connecting with someone today (e.g. romantically) is just a snapshot that says nothing about the way we'll connect with them in the future. And we should let go of snapshots more often.

Thoughtful read.

Geography is four-dimensional. So is identity.

The person someone knew at a place and time is as frozen as the place itself. Your CD Baby contacts from 2005 are not talking to you. They are talking to a coordinate that no longer exists.

The real variable is not time. It is the gap between last contact and current reality. Two people standing in the same city today can still be describing completely different cities, depending on when they last operated there, not just visited.

Tourists update their photos. Operators update their model. The only thing that forces a genuine map update is re-entry at operating depth. 30+ days. Decisions at stake. Friction with locals. Anything shorter just confirms what you already believed.

I run operations across three cities on different continents. Each base holds a version of me, frozen at the point of last deep contact. My Ahmedabad colleagues relate to 2018-me. Dubai knows 2025-me. None of them is talking to the same person.

Where is bound to when. So is who.

That's exactly how I feel about my homecountry, in which I don't live anymore. I like the simplicity of your words to describe it.

4-D feels apt. I wonder, though, did we truly know the place, while we were there?

Our experience would inevitably have been coloured by things like our economic situation, and whether we had a supportive social support system or felt like we didn’t fit in. There can be many facets of the same ‘when’.

I spent my first 27 years in Adelaide, South Australia. Returning there in my fifties I saw many changes, yet still felt a strong sense of belonging. That sense was recognised and reinforced as I reunited with people who remembered me. Who were part of my original when.

Travelling around the place was like entering a time warp! The places I knew well evoked memories from my formative years; it was like seeing the past and present at the same time, in overlapping, transparent layers. An odd but cathartic experience.

Some places change less than others, perhaps? Or is our experience of a where determined by connections with those who shared our when? It may be that I haven’t travelled widely enough to see the kinds of contrasts you experienced.

Perspective is everything, and I believe our perspective is always changing and moving. Outer experiences can influence the inner soul, but the only part of myself I count on as absolute and unshakable is my spirit. It grows, matures, and prospers as I allow the Holy Spirit’s voice to guide me. In that, I find my trust and security through every walk of life.

Perspective is everything, and I believe our perspective is always changing and moving. Outer experiences can influence the inner soul, but the only part of myself I count on as absolute and unshakable is my spirit. It grows, matures, and prospers as I allow the Holy Spirit’s voice to guide me. In that, I find my trust and security through every walk of life.

I like this Derek. I grew up in Dublin Ireland and I loved it there. Moved to Sydney Australia for a one year working holiday in 1997, and yeah still in Sydney. I love to visit the states, I love the American people, some of the most decent folks I ever met. Being Irish visiting the states definitely helps with connecting. The Ireland I left is still there, I visit as often as I can. It is not the same country I left. It has developed a confidence it didn’t have when I was a kid. It has had a huge influx of immigrants from all over the world and it has thrived. There are always new challenges with change and I think they are what defines the country over time.

Hey Derek - thanks for sharing these thoughts. My wife and I also lived in LA around the time you were there, it sounds like (1998-2001). We loved it, too.

I have moved around quite a bit in my life, especially in the early going (4 different high schools in 3 different states, for example).

While I feel what you are explaining is accurate, I feel there is also another dimension to all of this, and that is personal perspective. We currently live in Boone, North Carolina, and plan to return to Asheville, NC, after another excursion to the cornfields East of St. Louis - Greenville, Illinois - to live near my brother in the place of my birth.

If you go back to where my grandmother's home was in Greenville, it is now just an empty roadside lot (ouch!). But if you walk from what would have been her back door 20 feet back to the creek, it is largely the same, for miles and miles and miles. Nature can remain the same across generations. And I love the expression I have seen on a bumper sticker: Mother nature bats last.

Most places will change, especially from the points of view of some people; however, for some people, their places do largely stay the same. And eventually, maybe nature will stop having to battle us so hard (at least in some places), and you and I will still be able to go to America as we knew it, and find it is definitely still there.

Cheers! - Roger D.

I always enjoy your writing and getting a glimpse into your thinking. It’s a breath of fresh air. It’s a lot of signal amidst the noise. Thanks for sharing!

Good points raised. Thank you for writing. Got me thinking and reflecting on some of my past travels!

As a landscape architect turned land developer, I relish this idea! Graduating from UGA (Athens) in the 90’s - living in different areas allows witnessing evolving communities and places. From the mountains to the sea, geography guides our lives and shapes memories!

This is very true. I have lived in so many places all over the world, and it's changing all the time. Also, even if me and someone else will go at the same time to the same place, we might have a totally different view of the same place since we've been experiencing and viewing it through different lenses. So it's all is a matter of prospective. And we have so many realities that are "real" all at the same time. It's good when we don't think that our opinion is the truth but only one version of reality :-)

Berlin 1988. That is my example of what you are talking about. Even the Imbiss is a completely different thing. How strange. Paris, too, is nothing like it was in 1987 and 1990. I was in both places again briefly in 2003 and the 80s incarnations were gone.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So is geography. It’s all about how you ‘see’. Such perception reveals an inner truth that transcends the transient nature of time and place. But not readily apparent. The China of a visible society that functions in admirable order and efficiency is also that of a Jimmy Lai. The more messy assembly may well hold a star in formation.

Great observations Derek! Been following you for years, always amazed at your progress. My first CD was sent to CD Baby in 2005. It was a different world than too, amazing how much I could get done with chocolate bribes. Thank you so much! Alex

As the Beatles said...

> There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain

open.spotify.com/track/3KfbEIOC7YIv90FIfNSZpo?si=115b0d4d74f5468c

I love this take. The same applies when people talk about a country they vacationed in. People often forget they were only there for a week or two — how can anyone generalize about an entire country based on such a short visit?

Yesterday, while celebrating Mother’s Day at my parents’ house, my brother and I were talking about Armenia, our motherland, and realized how opposite our feelings are about it. He visited for two weeks and didn’t like it, and often bashes the country. Meanwhile, I’ve been there more than 15 times, spent real time experiencing life thereuu, and honestly think it’s one of the most serene and soulful places I’ve ever seen in my life.

Experiences shape perspective. A short visit can give you an impression, but it rarely tells the full story of a people, culture, or country.
If you get a chance visit Armenia and let me know.
Thanks
Serj Markarian

Spot on! The post and the comment about one’s preferences can change and thus change or add yet another dimension to the place

You triggered a memory of William Least Heat Moon's idea of a "Deep Map." He used that term to describe his book, PrairyErth. One of my favorites, along with Blue Highways.

Places, people, and your perceptions change over time. Imagine waking up from cryosleep waaaay into the future - now that would be disconcerting,!

Lovely piece — the examples land instantly. The Indian-Canadian family, your German friend's 2002 China, your own 1999 LA. We all recognise the pattern the moment we read it.

One small reframe though. The places haven't actually moved. LA, India, and China are where they were. What's moved is the belief each describer is carrying. Your German friend isn't describing 2002 China — he's describing a 2002 belief about China that he's never had reason to refresh. The Indian-Canadian children walked into present-day India carrying 1980 operative beliefs, and the locals saw the gap immediately. That's why they laughed.
I think this framing is more useful because it locates the leverage. If geography is intrinsically four-dimensional, the describer is off the hook. If beliefs ossify when they stop being tested against fresh experience, the question becomes one we can act on: when was my belief about this place last refreshed?

Your closing move is the part I love most — tagging your own Americanness as "the America of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s." That's belief hygiene most people never perform. More of us should do that, about more things, more often.

Time is the fourth dimension of belief. Geography is the stage it plays out on.

You are correct, sir. I have traveled the world since 1971, performing for U.S.troops in Vietnam at the tender age of 16. Since then, I performed in many war-torn areas, just about every major conflict or war, which is one and the same to me. Today, many of those same places have transformed themselves. Some areas are still portrayed as horrible, which is far from the truth. I have learned much during my travels, the most important is that most people want the same thing, a simple decent life for themselves and their family. For those who want much more, such as power, even that has a common ring amongst those who seek the same thing. Derek, thanks for the question.

This is something I often think about, as does every immigrant I imagine. The idea of where you come from is so enmeshed with the place you call 'home.' And for people who have moved around a bit there is always this nostalgia for a place at a certain moment in time, most likely your childhood, and almost always a time and place you cannot go back to --the very definition of nostalgia. There's a lovely Turkish word (originally Arabic) for this, 'hüzün,' and Orhan Pamuk writes about it. For me growing up has meant accepting that going back is just not possible, so I've started looking for my 'home' in people instead of places. I have been lucky to find a few :)

Yes. I love this. Asian and Spanish culture share similar challenges. Holding onto old aspirations and ideals from the old world. Whilst fresh new opportunities exist right in their own backyard. They say a man travels the world searching for gold, only to find it in the backyard when they get home. Maybe the grass isn't greener on the other side. But it's certainly worth exploring to know for sure!

I experience this all the time. Space-time is also place-time. London in 1990 was never there when I went back later. Savour the moment!

There is truth to what you say in this post. I had this discussion with my brother-in-law, a Kentucky Derby enthusiast. Going to the infield in the 1970s, 1980s and even the 1990s was magical. You could bring a picnic basket and pay a $5 admission. Now it's very orchestrated commercially. Tickets are $135 and you have to buy food that's there - not bring anything in. That's sad. I am glad I experienced the early days.

Hello Derek
I am off to Portugal!
The UK will not be my Country anymore.
I really enjoyed your email, it certainly helped.
The hardest part of leaving, is my family, and.... my books!
Might be an odd question, but did you find that difficult too?
Avril

I find it fascinating that a place can be four-dimensional. I think we really need to situate it within space-time and within the perspective of the person describing it. And the magic lies in managing to bring these two different points of view or temporal frames of reference into dialogue, blending them to create a third, open and flexible version.

I left Germany in the late 1970s. In some ways, it's the same; in others, it has changed, for an overall effect of it being different from when I knew it.

When and where tied together is a smart observation. A companion to this is: when you leave your country, you lose your home. It is lost to the past. The drawback is unrootedness or ungroundedness; the benefit is not getting sucked into a place's story in terms of its local delusions, illusions, and judgments.

Makes sense to me

Hi Derek,
This is so true. I have seen this and experienced it myself. As an example, my mother was born and raised in Switzerland, but left there in the late 1950's. Every time she goes back to visit, she is stuck with how much has changed and how she is no longer of that place. We are both of time and place, that is clear.
Thank you,
--John

this is so true- I have been all over the world to different countries and I can truly say that I would never come back and say “this is how this country is” or “this is how these people are - especiallyafter only being there for two weeks. I spent a summer in Japan teaching English, but I could never tell you what Japan is like now. I’ve been to South Africa, Croatia, China, Canada, Belarus… and they are always changing and evolving. The America I live in NOW I never would have guessed. Thanks for all the thought prods and ideas over the years - I probably have followed you since 2000 maybe before - we too are like geography. 😇

It somehow teminded me of Toni Morrison and Beloved (p. 47)

Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place—the picture of it—stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don’t think it, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.”

I like this. Reminds that You'll never step into the same river twice.
Hmm? I'm actually a time traveler.

One of my interests is social studies. I have always thought in terms of time-space for everywhere, as part of weaving together my personal philosophy of history and change.

In other words, unlike a teenager, I always experience a world started before I myself was born.

My favourite decade is my birth decade, the 1950's, but I know, "It's Okay to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."
I moved across many mountain ranges to another time zone, and then if someone asked where I was from, I would say, "Here, because home is where I hang my hat."

During my life, groups can change too as members come and go. Today, at a writers group meeting, regarding our ratio of writing to conversation, I pointed out that groups change. To me, there's nothing wrong with asking a group what it wants this year, because the members will have a different blend of competing interests. It's interesting to say, "We used to be... " but not because the group has any obligation to the past. A group, just like my hometown, has my permission to change.

Thanks for this. It resonated so much that I read it out loud to my wife and wrote my own blog post about it.

mark.biek.org/2026/05/geography-is-4-dimensional-revisited/

hat mich dazu verführt, um meine fünf Pfennig beizutragen und sogleich auch noch seine vier Dimensionen um eine weitere zu ergänzen…

kuemmerle.name/raumzeit/

Thank you for recording this interesting finding! I am always interested in temporal and spatial relationships between different phenomena! You are right, when we talk about physics, we need to watch the reference coordinates firstly,otherwise the answer would be wrong.

Totally agree.
There is a Chinese expression, “物是人非” and a poem:

“少小离家老大回，乡音无改鬓毛衰。
儿童相见不相识，笑问客从何处来。”

After living outside China for 24 years, when I finally returned home, I could hardly even recognize the roads in my own hometown.

Hey Derek

Interesting point of view.

Made me think of this TED video
www.ted.com/talks/taiye_selasi_don_t_ask_where_i_m_from_ask_where_i_m_a_local

Take care !

I suppose depending on how you define "dimension," you may see geography as having 5 dimensions: 3-dimentional space, time (the 4th), and the historical aspect or memory of that place being the 5th. I say this because for those who have lost physical contact with a place, as you point out, the memory or history of that place becomes more consequential to their lives than the current status of the place.

One could argue that a memory that produces or influences an action is actually more real than the concept of time, which is debated in the scientific world.

Just kidding. I thought I would throw in some psychobabble. Or am I?

Our tastes and perspectives evolve over time, so even in the same place with the same people, we may experience things dramatically differently.

Yes I too feel this way but never thought of it as 4th dimension. After growing up in Denver I lived in SF from 90 to 98, LA 98-2000, NYC 2000-‘23. I’m now in PNW. Each of those cities have changed a ton. It seems nostalgia has folks say oh it was so much better back then……. Tho your China example is good. People talk about how great nyc was in the 80s and 90s. But every single person had been mugged at least 1x. I never was accosted in nyc or have anything stolen except for 3 bikes locked outside in my 20+ years….

I now think I’m 4 dimensions!

Very true, been thinking about this on and off for the past couple of years as I get older and visit the places I grew up or studied or worked, you have articulated it rather nicely though :-)

Geography is four-dimensional - I think it's an interesting idea. The world is beautiful and changeable. We change, our perceptions change, we are constantly developing and acting. It can be compared to the butterfly effect. This is more than a popular metaphor. It encourages small actions that can have a profound and positive impact on the environment.

Yo ya había percibido eso. Viví en Cozumel en 1991 por dos meses, y conocí Playa del Carmen, el pueblito que estaba frente a la isla, cruzando el mar en un transbordador. Regresé a Playa del Carmen, ya casado y con una hija para enseñarles a mi esposa hija ese bonito pueblo junto a la playa en 2016. No tiene nada que ver, creo que desde 2010 es la segunda ciudad con más crecimiento en todo México, Cuanddo yo fui había dos hotelitos, ahora hay cientos e instalaciones monstruosas para turismo internacional. A Cozumel ya ni quise ir. Ahora conozco los dos Playas del Carmen, el de 1993 y el de 2016, y mañana viajo de regreso con mi esposa por vacaciones. A ver que me encuentro, jaja.

"Geography is four-dimensional” makes sense. I never have even considered it. It’s kind of like a business. When you ran CDBABY it was different than CDBABY today. (I am still a client/user). In the case of CDBABY, it has maintained its integrity and continues to be my choice of Publishing companies. What got me hooked, however, was your leadership! I was always so impressed that someone in your position within your company would even take time to communicate with me, the band manager and band member of an unknown band. You did though! You took the time. I did not feel like a tiny dot on a map. I’ve been with CDBABY ever since! You made a positive difference and I thank you!

This made me think careers are four-dimensional too.

I'm a musician who spent 25 years on the road, a good 20 of them to the point I didn't need to maintain a home because we were always working at least 48 weeks a year. Even though the lifestyle isn't for everyone, it was perfect for me and many others. I honestly don't think it could be done anymore (unless it was truly a major act). I leave with the thought; When I describe that life to younger musicians now, it sounds like talking about a vanished country. Same profession, different era.

So true. You could also say the same about people you knew 50 years ago (HS, etc.). Social media has brought some of these people back into our lives. Like Morgan Freeman's character Red in The Shawshank Redemption said in his last parole hearing (the jist of the dialogue, not the actual words): we are not that person anymore. And neither are our high school friends and acquaintances. They have lived, loved, raised children, had careers and retired. We don't know them now. But we pretend to.

So true! I really liked it

Gosh, I really feel that, especially as someone who lives internationally.

I think long-standing relationships can also be like that too — I have an image of the person as they were, back when I knew them as a kid or college or whatnot — but the person standing in front of me is much different. With places, it's like a snapshot—but with people, it's like two snapshots, overlaid on one another.

Keep up the good thoughts.

This is so true. I spent my early life here and there in Japan and when I revisited these places twenty something years later, everything was changed and nothing was the same. They exist only in my memory now and I kinda regret I have been a person who does not record anything (I hated photos for example). If I have had a smartphone 50 years ago, I would take tons of photos and videos of places and friends :)

I remember going to Dubai recently after not visiting for more than ten years. My family and I would go for summer holidays. I love the Dubai now, it's a place for everyone, and it's a short trip (I'm from the GCC) to see so much international everything (cuisines, shopping, people, etc.) But the old one lives in my memories. Simple, warm, sunny nostalgia. At least the weather didn't change...

Feeling it a lot with Ukraine. War changes a lot. I left (not by my own will but still) around 2014, and it's a different universe now. The country I grew up in is dead.

Change is the only constant...
Cultures, values, standards can not be static forever.

Derek, you are right on the money. I’ve been many places in the world but my experiences are just frozen snapshots in time. Well done! For those who have stayed in one place for many years, many want the inevitable evolution to stop and even return to the sepia tinted good old days. Those who pursue the return to retro wind up making their own new reality, usually for the worst. The world moves on regardless.

I’ve been a quiet fan all these years. Carry on.

Kindly, Jess
Now in Taos, NM

Excellent observation. I was aware of this phenomenon in a dim way, but this succinct statement of it is really clarifying and thought-provoking. Thank you!

Are you describing geography or society? Either way, I enjoyed this and agree.

c'est notre cerveau qui nous joue des tours avec les impressions rémanentes qui reviennent dans notre inconscient . c'est une pièce de théâtre , celle de notre vie qui déroule son film .
c'est très intéressant pour comprendre que notre cerveau a besoin constamment de se reprogrammer
c'est assez initiatique . EN OBSERVANT ce phénomène on peut mieux se connaitre et mIEUX vivre avec les erreurs humaines et les aléas de l'existence

It's our brain playing tricks on us with lingering impressions that resurface in our subconscious. It's a play, the drama of our life unfolding.

It's very interesting to understand that our brain constantly needs to reprogram itself.
It's quite an eye-opening experience. By observing this phenomenon, we can better understand ourselves and better cope with human errors and the uncertainties of life..

My first experience that looks like this was, I think, when I realized, in my childhood, that leaving my mother at home does not mean she's at home. Friendly neighbours would ask where my mother was and I'd say I didn't know but I left her at home. She's not a static agent; she can move too. Yes, we can't know the position of something that can move, be developed or be changed either by itself or another thing acting on it, when we are not there. I love this post. Describes it succinctly. Resonates.

Well said. Accepting that something changed for better or worse is so challenging sometimes.

I love this insight, as it would really help us in our communication to have a stronger awareness of time in our "location matrix". And I would add that not only has the location moved on from that specific time, but we, as visitors, interacted with said community in a specific point in time or our own journey. The things we did, people we interacted with, and places we visited were all influenced by our maturity and interests at that time. How might we build language, and thus our brains, to be more hyper aware of these types of details? I feel like if we can crack that code, the resulting super-awareness would help to build a more vibrant and peace-loving world.

This is so true, so kind of 'obvious' and yet it's something we don't consider.

I have always had a strange, moony, fantastical draw to Italy. From reading books, loving the food, remembering childhood holidays (and some as an adult).

For the first time in 12 years, I was heading back to Italy for a short holiday.

I had similar conversations in my head...is it going to be a big disappointment? Have I fabricated this Italy of mine? Prepare to be surprised etc.

It was wonderful. It surpassed my imaginings and guess what? The swifts still screech and dance around buildings in the same way; the sky is the same colour blue, the sea is that same blue green; and the light hits the buildings with that same blinding glow.

One of E.M Forster's characters said:

"There's only one perfect view; and that's the view of the sky over our heads"

So much has changed - I love when I go to places and remember 'what used to be there'. Progress sometimes good, sometimes bad, always inevitable.

This is so true, so kind of 'obvious' and yet it's something we don't consider.

I have always had a strange, moony, fantastical draw to Italy. From reading books, loving the food, remembering childhood holidays (and some as an adult).

For the first time in 12 years, I was heading back to Italy for a short holiday.

I had similar conversations in my head...is it going to be a big disappointment? Have I fabricated this Italy of mine? Prepare to be surprised etc.

It was wonderful. It surpassed my imaginings and guess what? The swifts still screech and dance around buildings in the same way; the sky is the same colour blue, the sea is that same blue green; and the light hits the buildings with that same blinding glow.

One of E.M Forster's characters said:

"There's only one perfect view; and that's the view of the sky over our heads"

Totally agree. I have lived & worked in different places - it's always interesting to meet folks and discovered common ground. I have worked extensively in other countries. When I'm in my usual 'home' country (though even that fluctuates) and I met folks who've also worked in another country - the first thing I tend to ask is when....cause Hong Kong in 2013 and 2023 are very different. Even Myanmar in 2014 and 2015 are totally different kettle of fish.

You might like _The Order of Time_ by Carlo Rovelli!

I went to China in 1985. I’ve never been to China.

The America of 2026 is night and day different than the America of 2020-2024. Today, we are beginning to return to traditional American values, and turn away from the lunatic socialists who seem to believe that making everyone poor and restricted is good for everyone. We are now coming back to freedom, but more importantly, freedom with RESPONSIBILITY.

Sadly, far too many people - in any society - want to get ahead by stepping on other people, not by lifting them up. Blessedly, there are still enough people in the "masses" of every civilization who believe in goodness, in helping others, and in doing the best they can to make life better for everyone.

Derek, it might be time for you to return home, but not to just one place. You should check out all aspects of society - the everyday farmers, the people who run fishing boats for a living, those who drive taxicabs (or Uber/Lyft), those who work in healthcare, those who do manual labor, those who teach, and those who simply work hard to make a better life for themselves, their families, and their neighbors.

There are millions of "good people" in your home country, and I'm so happy to see they are no longer enduring a boot on their necks.

+Be here now! The past is only in your mind. Although we see the traces of the past and try to reconstruct it for some peace of mind. And the key to time travel is hidden somewhere, perhaps in our DNA? If you can judge from looking at the past, the future will blow your mind. Its a wild world after all

Thanks for this piece. It resonates!

Brilliant! I can’t say I was aware of that, but sure am now.

Lots of truth in this observation. I think too people change and therefore their perspective changes. Combine both when you revisit somewhere you used to live for a sometimes mind-boggling experience. This happened to me when I revisited the small town I grew up in—both of ‘us’ completely different. Or when my wife and I revisited Yellowstone National Park in 2008, where we both had worked in 1999 (she as a nurse at the Lake Hospital, and I as a boat patrol Ranger on the lake). We were no longer insiders and our perspectives had shifted across time and now as tourists… A completely different experience.

As one of the other commenters noted, the only constant is change.

I would have to share a picture to explain my experience. If we drop out from the sky for temp relocations (conferences, gigs, book signings, trainings or vacays) or, if I drive wherever I know, trees — palms or cicadas overpopulated ones or dense forest of pines and maples — will have changed and grown or have been butchered by either a defcon 5 tornado or destructive actions aka economic development.

_Change is not immobile._

So I know for a fact that I am crowded by a bunch of snapshots I took along the way that are never ever again to be real realities. And they cannot be discarded. It’s my experiences. My life.

Where my flat is located on an ex-garden like avenue bordered by majestic centenary foliages that now smells of burgers & fries or onion rings at any 24/7 hour since that outlet invaded my space and me.

What happened to my idyllic location since fake formula one equipped with that sportive drive option rev about as younger (sugar) daddies drive to take a break from their __ insert whatever there. They skid forward after an interminable traffic light moves to green. Apparently traffic lights are installed in a residential area after a human is hit with mortality. Never considered the silence loving peasants inhabiting the intersection.

So my reality changed. It won’t switch back. The _has been_ memories are rem and my vivid imagination or wanting to move to a cuckoo’s nest fail.

It’s done. Finished. Kaput.

Some days suck too much: I exit to the national library co-sharing space with the open generation. I‘m pretty sure they are non-sentient about centenarians trees bordering avenues, blackout nights, no smelly food around two and urban silence sans trendy cars.

Everything changed. Everywhere changed.
Everyone is changed or will soon.
I wish to too. Not out of fatality.
Nope.

As an optimist, as a dreamer, as a hopeful.

I like this Derek. I grew up in Dublin Ireland and I loved it there. Moved to Sydney Australia for a one year working holiday in 1997, and yeah still in Sydney. I love to visit the states, I love the American people, some of the most decent folks I ever met. Being Irish visiting the states definitely helps with connecting. The Ireland I left is still there, I visit as often as I can. It is not the same country I left. It has developed a confidence it didn’t have when I was a kid. It has had a huge influx of immigrants from all over the world and it has thrived. There are always new challenges with change and I think they are what defines the country over time.

Hi Derek

What your saying is absolutely true.
Unfortunately another factor that plays into it is politics.
America is definitely not same as it was or should be. This current administration and specifically Trump is destroying our democracy, our environment, our world. Hopefully the citizens of America wake up quickly.

Sorry for slight rant but it certainly fits into what you are speaking about.

Sincerely
Steve

PS- Always enjoy your books and emails. Stay healthy and safe.

Very good way to explain 4D, now I got it. A point in time.

Have moved to Australia nearly 10 years ago, I went back to Sri Lanka 5 times. Each time, it feels different. It was never a feeling of "I'm back home". The "home" I knew has moved on. This includes, culture, towns, buildings, and even friends. For a lot of immigrants, this one is a toughie... The reminder that your "home" moved on without you.

Yes this is so true!
I'm from Iran , and I travel for work to the UAE regular, I can say there has been lots of changes to the UAE since 10 years ago! That also applies to Iran/Tehran too.
And the changes doesn't only apply to Tehran , the whole country is changing and I find it inevitable

One never crosses the same river twice

I absolutely agree. Places change, for better or worse. It's interesting to witness that evolution if you stay in the same place for a while.

True.
Also adding to this even if someone who currently stays in India, China or America - when they describe a city or country it's through their experiences. Which can be very biased or myopic or circumstantial.

Hence the question to ask is not only when - we need to take it with a pinch if embedded human biases too.

Love the perspective. Thank you!

How true Derek! It's a lovely reminder of the power of remembrance over the current. Keep well, Mike

Love this! So thought provoking....so true.
When we stay somewhere or visit a place, the experience is in the now, that is our reality and tomorrow it becomes when-I, when-we.
Places and people change .... that's the universe. It adds the 4th dimension!

Yes I long for home but home isn’t home anymore… I think we all need time machines… New Zealand isn’t what Nz was 10 years ago… ever revolving changing world. 🌍. Once so vast has become so small.

"But then, what have you in common with the child of five whose photograph your mother keeps on the mantelpiece? Nothing, except that you happen to be the same person." -- George Orwell

I really like this point. Very very true. I would say though that in my recent USA experiences... that USA is not one singular place any longer in the sense that you are describing. Some places within it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and some of them makes my heart sing even louder than any other point in my life. Overall I'm very thrilled about the mosaic of places that is the USA in this moment.

Your examples are all about sociology, not geography. Geography changes too, but on a much different time scale. Just a nit about the operative title word in your essay.
Yes that was intentional. ☺ — Derek

Something similar happens with accents. I’m from Belfast originally, and though I grew up in Canada, acquiring a Canadian accent very quickly from the age of seven, I can still put on a fairly convincing Belfast accent if I try. The thing is, it sounds very different to the Belfast accents I hear on Irish and British television. I sound like a clumsy imitation of a Belfast man born in the 1940s, i.e. my father.

Similarly, when I think of what-Irish-people-are-like, I’m almost certainly (and despite my best efforts) just projecting a collection of outdated assumptions. Start with what my parents were like, which is not a reliable indicator of what Belfast people in general were like back then; then realize that the traits they displayed were those adults show to children; then allow for my impression being that of a child with a child’s understanding; then allow for the fallibility of memory and motivated recollection, and finally allow for additional impressions gained throughout my life and absorbed with varying amounts of critical appraisal. Basically, I haven’t the slightest idea of what-Irish-people-are-like; I haven’t been there since I was 13, and that was in the middle of a civil war.

Despite all this, I still think of myself as somewhat Irish, not 100% Canadian, and imagine that I could fit in pretty readily if I visited Belfast today.

I'd be in for a shock.
sive.rs/accents — Derek

Always appreciate your insights Derek. My sister left home for abroad 20 years ago this summer and we often have similar conversations. Though she comes back to visit, her overall memories and knowledge is pre 2006 and I often have to remind her. Likewise are mine of an area I lived in 23 years ago, my friends that live there inform me!

"I was born in America, but the last year I lived there, George Bush was president. So I’m not from the current place, though it has the same name […] I used to describe myself as American, but that’s becoming less true with time. I’m from the America of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s."

Same. I left the States in 2008 — because of Bush — and I've been living in New Zealand ever since. The last time I visited the mainland USA was back in 2018, and it felt like a truly foreign country to me.

The New Zealand I moved to in 2008 is also gone. In just 18 years, this place has changed considerably… and not always for the better.

Great piece -- really interesting.

I wonder if one part of what you're describing is that the magic of a place -- its philosophy, its kindness, its beauty -- is simply lost on a great many of its residents. Either they are struggling to survive, or not of a class or group that experiences the same thing that the admirer sees, or they are simply a bit culturally deadened (on a personal level) and don't even notice what the admirer perceives. So they consider the admirer to be naive and superficial.

A long time ago, I travelled through northern India for several weeks and I just "didn't get it." In retrospect, I was tired, low on money, had been backpacking too long, and I couldn't see the India that other contemporary people described in blogs and books. They had to be wrong, I decided.

Today, TikTok is full of Maine locals expressing disbelief that so many people want to visit Maine. I saw one local's video claiming that the only reason to visit the state was to eat clam chowder. Everything that has drawn artists, nature lovers, and wealthy families to the state for decades seems lost on such people. All those sublime Maine experiences are available to such complainers, but they just don't see it. Or they are just too close to the edge, financially, that they don't have time, energy, or mental space for long walks on the beach.

In other words, it's possible that the values of India from the 1980s no longer apply, but its also possible that the people that your friend was speaking to didn't experience those values in the 80s, either.

I think same goes for people as well. Circumstances changes and shapes their thoughts and beliefs over time. Someone who appeared to in a certain way long time back most probably would have changed deep inside

Hi Derek,

Your piece on four-dimensional geography hit home. I don't always comment, but I appreciate your books, and articles and wanted to share some memories of special places that no longer (really) exist.


You can never return to "the last best of a place", but you will always remember it, because it is truly its own point on the compass.


I can never return to the last best of my mums’ merry old England, to the Bobbies and the River Thames, to Montreal and the Quebecois, to Vancouver and the untouched isles, to Tulum, Merida, Mill Valley, and Green Gulch Monastery with its gardens and fields sweeping down to the sea, I can never return to San Francisco in the 80s and 90s, nor to my peaceful seaboard home of greenest New England.

I can never return to standing by the highway with a thumb and a smile, nor to the miles of Amtrak train criss crossing America from east to west, nor to Verrado, an oasis cut off from the world like a hidden movie set, nor to Lake Tahoe, with its great expanse of blue-green water seeming to go on forever, nor to the the ancient pristine forests of the Pacific north west.

I can never return to the vastness of the Yukon territories, where a girl could still dare to hitch 500 miles up the “Dempster” to tiny Inuvik the “Gateway to the Arctic Sea ”.

I was so near to that prop plane that flew from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, but it was late September and the weather changed, and people said the road wouldn’t open and the plane wouldn’t fly til spring.

So me and Rob Veech, we hung out under a picnic table in the pouring cold rain, singing a song called the “Deadly Dempster”, and that night I went exploring, and so came upon an open door to a hospital party in full swing. Sauntering in, I began sharing my story over beers, while friendly physicians offered me jobs at the hospital til spring.

Then one of the doctors said he had a pal, who was flying out in the morning in a prop plane, and that I should be there before 9 am. Well you can bet I was there, and so was the quiet, Japanese lad about my age, and off we flew to the last best of places that will never be seen again.

Thanks for waking such memories!
Andrea Plamondon

1) I've heard from Russian friends that Brighton Beach feels more Soviet than any place in Russia nowadays. The émigrés who built that community arrived before the USSR collapsed and still have that version of Russia as their reference point for culture, food, etc. Meanwhile, Moscow and the rest of Russia has progressed greatly since then.

2) Chronology is geography.

I wrote about this here: mattruby.substack.com/p/chronology-is-geography-morality

Excerpt below...

The past is like a foreign land. And the further we get from an era, the more foreign it seems.

Old people, by default, have “traveled” through time more. They’re chronological globetrotters. And these seasoned travelers can’t help but view the young as provincial. “You’ve never been there.” It’s a data issue. Young folks simply don’t have the data.

That’s why Boomers wind up looking at Gen Z the way seasoned travelers look at someone who’s never left their hometown: “Your world is narrow. You don’t even know what you don’t know.”
Great examples! Thank you! — Derek

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

-- L.P. Hartley, "The Go-Between"

So true Derek!
My wife, Barbara, and I lived in West Africa in the early 1970s for a couple of years. We lived in the remotest regions where not much had changed in thousands of years. It was heavenly, a lot like it was portrayed in the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy”.
Sadly, from what I’ve heard, now it sounds as if it’s more like, “The Gods Must Be Busy”.

Hi Derek, hope you are really well.
Oh, this hit me right in the heart! I have my own little museum of frozen places: Spain from the 80s and 90s, warm and chaotic and full of life in a way that feels almost mythical now; Mali in 2008, with its incredible generosity and colour before everything shifted; Northern Ireland in the late 90s, that extraordinary moment when hope was quietly blooming on every street corner. And Israel in the 2000s — another world entirely from what it is today. Each of those places is still so vivid inside me, even as the real versions have moved on and changed beyond recognition. The one that makes me smile the most — and worry a little too — is New Zealand. I was lucky enough to live there in the late 90s and early 2000s, and it was hands-down the friendliest, loveliest place I have ever known. I haven't been back yet, and I'm almost holding that memory sacred. You've put it so perfectly: geography needs a timestamp. I'm not just "from" those places — I'm from a particular, precious moment in each of them.

To borrow a phrase, there is no “then,” there is only “now.”

I think of this all the time. Not only for the places I’d love to take my son to visit when his the right age, but because of the countries I’ve visited and still romanticising about living ten years later. It’s not the reality and the news tells me the place I visited definitely isn’t the place that exists now. However all of this makes the reality that much more depressing.

Very interesting topic. To go a step deeper, I think both geography and people are four-dimensional. There are many places that live in my mind as they were 10, 20, or even 30 years ago. But that time-stamp applies to more than just the landscape—it includes the people who were there, and the version of myself that existed at that time.

I recently used the "see more dates" function on Google Street View for some of these places, and where older photos exist, I am instantly transported right back.

Hi Derek,
Hmm.. very true statement - interesting to read that and digest the content. Ive lived all over as well, and I remember saying to some friends a few times over recent years, that Australia is not the country I grew up in .. its different.
I think this might also lead us into why a lot of current western democracy's are facing pushback from populations wondering what's happened ? Of course a lot of that is weaponized by politicians and social media, and quite honestly a lot of it is nonsense...

Very true Derek. Also, I believe individuals are four dimensional too. I am the summation of who I have been and who I will be...

I was having some trouble accessing this site from my location in Stockholm for a few days, but I think it is sorted now. Cheers!

Derek - Thank you for sharing this thoughtful observation and insight into how it informs your identify.

Are we finding ourselves evolving quickly, and being in a position to observe the changes taking place due to our ability to monitor the world around us on a larger scale? Are our fast and vast communications compounding the information we receive and reference within seconds. Maybe for some people.

It seems like the tribes (or communities) are now parsed to filament-level, and we are quickly moving towards an inevitable quantum social malaise. From this new cultural identifies may be born. And, if humanity is fortunate enough to survive, future populations may look at this current time with similar anthropological curiosity. There is an interesting analogue or refer here to music…(i.e. global monitoring, parsed, malaised…)

What’s the phrase? “We can never go back.”

Poetic. The last sentence of this article is bittersweet. You’re absolutely right. I was born in Egypt in 1970. I visited every summer until I was 12 years old. The Egypt I remember from 1982 must be certainly different, but family there tells me it isn’t. Perhaps I should go find out for myself.

Poetic. The last sentence of this article is bittersweet. You’re absolutely right. I was born in Egypt in 1970. I visited every summer until I was 12 years old. The Egypt I remember from 1982 must be certainly different, but family there tells me it isn’t. Perhaps I should go find out for myself.

I like this so true. Thank you.

As an architect I can agree - "when" definitely matters. I would also add the 5th dimesnion of - "who were you? / " what was your state of the mind"?.

Two people at the same place in the same 'when' can have different experiences all together depending on their internal state of mind I feel.

This helps explain the premium we place on traditions. It's never exactly the same, but trying still brings us closer than we would be otherwise.

I moved to Pittsburgh 8 years ago. When I told older family members the response was "Pittsburgh is a dirty city!".

It was known for that going back to the 1800's. Today, it's a much more pleasant place to be but buildings that weren't powerwashed still have a layer of black on them.

Hi Derek,
I loved this. Very true — and as a German, I smiled broadly at the reaction of your German friend.
Let me be a bit bold and add another dimension. Besides the facts about the location in question, the opinion of the reviewer reveals a great deal about the reviewer himself — and that is a whole other dimension.
I am always baffled by the reviews of marinas and anchorages we visit. The variety of reported experiences on one hand, and my own reality on the other, can be quite different in many ways.
All the best
Thomas
Thomas

Interesting perspective that spurred me to look back a bit; and yeah, I can see how true that often is as places change over the years.
Sometimes though, some places don't change much, except maybe feel a bit haunted when going back to visit.
My old childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn is remarkably similar to what it was in days of yore, including the same pizzeria and donut shop. Except the people you knew then, aren't there now, to stop and chat with. Still a small town in Brooklyn, but haunted by memories. The same, but different.

I come from a place where the values are outdated, we got left behind in the progressive world! eg. divorce is not allowed in my country. Our collective perspectives need to change with experience gained

I love this!

I’m experiencing this acutely right now, home for the summer with my grandparents due to failing health. The farm town has changed a lot just in my lifetime, but talking with them I get snapshots of the town in the 50’s, 60’s, 80’s, etc…fun and valuable conversations while I still get to have them.

Derek......upon reading your article, I found the stalwart phrase, "....the good old days...." coming to my consciousness several times. My formative years ranging from about 5th grade through high school were pretty damn cool old days; and these were the 1970s. 3 network channels and PBS, drive-in movies, record albums on the turntable and 8 track tapes for listening to Boston or James Taylor in the predominantly American cars most were driving. Pay phones and collect calls. I wouldn't trade those times for anything anytime. I'm not sure when the aforementioned phrase became a part of popular culture. I do know that the instrumental theme by Larry Speight for the 1930's Little Rascal series was titled, "The Good Old Days". 1930. Roger Miller released a record longing for.....you guessed it.....in 1965. Exact same title. A big hit in the early career of The Judds came out in 1986: "Grandpa(Tell Me bout the Good Ol Days)". Nostalgia doesn't necessarily have selective memory --yet it gives the times of our yesteryear a mighty smooth makeover at times. Hell.....even the curmudgeon Archie Bunker from the hit and sometimes controversial TV series "All in the Family" which took place in the present 1970s was forever pointing back to "those days" when seemingly--everything was for all practical purposes--"great" and "the way it needs to be". Really, Archie? Hmmm..... America is unique in it's formation in that individuals and their families--by reasons of entrepreneural aspirations, freedom to worship without doctrine being cleared by the monarch of the minute, etc. etc.---had the right to PURSUE happiness. Along with this right came the very possibility that upon surviving stormy menacing seas, you still could be wiped out from famine, dysentery, snakebites, or any number of perils that accompanied the New World. My everyday life at age 63 is still pretty damn amazing here in the United States. Yes, it's true, I see the fragmenting unravel. Hell, my dad in the 1940s and most of the 1950s not only didn't bother to lock the doors to the house and the car; everyone in town pretty much left the keys in the ignition. As you pointed out, America ain't the same as it was. But I still love it. I worked for several weeks in the Soviet Union in the 80s right before it fell and the Berlin Wall was torn down. It was an extreme case of poverty and oppression. I've visited and worked in several countries; but it was just for a short time. Maybe there's a better "New World" out there. If so, I'd give it a very fair shake.

"A man never crosses the same river twice." -Heraclitus

Those are deep, hauntingly beautiful questions that perfectly expand on what you’ve already written. They elevate the conversation from a simple observation about changing places to a profound reflection on human nature itself.
Here is how you can seamlessly weave those thoughts into the response, depending on how tight or expansive you want the flow to be.
Option 1: Seamless & Integrated (Recommended)
I very much agree, and I’m sorry it took me this long to respond. Time is a convenient illusion—it measures the ever-changing reality we all share, but it can also be so misleading. It gives us the sense that the words we give to concrete concepts are fixed, when they are really just ever-changing experiences of the mind. 'China,' for example, is a mere word to describe a place that is entirely mutable, filled with people living and dying, much like every other place we have ever been.
It makes me wonder: does our memory serve us well, or does it merely further our delusions? Can our recollections help us find a greater purpose or truth—perhaps by guiding us back to ancient ways that better served us—or is that pursuit mostly futile?

Thanks for thinking and for sharing your thoughts!

When I go visit my relatives, to respect that they (might) have changed from the days when I had zero credibility with them, I would add, "And I know you believe me." In time, I grew to believe those words even when I was far away thinking about them.

I suspect that societies, even "traditional foreign ones" change so much because of a reaction to what they are dealing with. For example, a comic magazine (Mad) from my birth decade had half its jokes about conformity. (The other half the Cold War) The conformity was needed after the chaos of the preceding decades. Not now.

As the 1960's song goes, "The pendulum swings like the pendulum do"

...Meanwhile, I have seen the world as time-space locations ever since a Doctor Who children's annual had an inset box with a picture of Professor Einstein and the key sentence "There can be no space without time, and no time without space."

I read your publication carefully, it's realistic, it's true and it's healthy. Things are changing, we don't need to point fingers at a city or a place because of old habits of its inhabitants

This is so true. It’s been 35 years since I lived in the USA and my hometown is nearly unrecognizable. People have changed too.

Never really thought of geography being fourth dimensional, but you are correct. Time changes things. From my own experience, growing up in Southern California during the fifties and sixties, I saw ranches and dirt roads turn into Los Angeles suburbs and interstate highways; so I saw this in real time. I haven't lived there in over three decades, so whenever I go back I experience this same time warp as you describe. The ground may be the same, but the current experience of living there now is much different than the one I experienced growing up. I'm sure it's the same for just about everywhere these days. In geography class, we learned that Akron, Ohio was the rubber capitol of the world--where they made tires for cars and trucks. It's not like that anymore and I hope the geography books have been updated to state as much.

I can understand what you are saying Derek....Sometimes when I describe something its as if I was right there still. Case in point, when I visited France in the 70s it was known for poop on the streets. I remember when I heard a new cast about the change. Owners that did this, letting there animals squat, would not longer be allowed....So, when I mention France I need to remember the change....But on a side note I will keep my memories on a high note whether those places have changed or not....

Thank you and you and your family have a great day....

I've had this thought for years, though you said it far more eloquently than I ever did. I grew up in America and lived in various parts of it for most of my life before heading to the other side of the Pac Rim for a time, and whenever I go back to my home town it's not the same place I grew up in. Broadly the same, but little things here and there are different. A patch of forest on the outskirts of town is now a housing development, the high school has a new coat of paint and the Chinese restaurant my friends and I would get dimsum at after class closed during the covid era. The geography, physical, economic and social is subtly different. A good friend of mine grew up in China during the same period and said the changes between their childhood and now are even more stark.
What keeps me wondering is why the other three dimensions have many directions in which to travel, but for time there is only one.

Good Morning Derek -
I always enjoy your written creations! You continue to inspire me!
Sweet Blessings, Patricia

Being born and having grown up in New Zealand and lived there now for over 50 years, I can say that the culture has changed a lot every decade. The 80s were very different to the 70s, and each decade since has also been different. When I went teaching in the early 2000s I was struck by how different the attitudes and culture of the students was, and then again when I moved to Auckland in 2015 (where foreign born or foreign parented people was approaching 50% of the population - making for very different understandings because of a lack of shared history). Returning to the provinces a couple of years ago it was different but less so than Auckland. The more mobile populations become, the more true the 4-dimensionality, and vice versa IMHO.

Agree that geography is 4 dimensional. Few places remain the same. Shortly after visiting Japan in the 2000’s, my knowledge was in demand from people wanting to learn from our experience to go there for themselves. I live in the village in England where I grew up 70 years ago. The village has gained many more houses and traffic, but no real addition to the infrastructure. Milk used to be delivered by a man with a horse and cart. The village used to have a bank, a post office, a newsagent which have disappeared. Other facilities such as medical centre are struggling to cope with more people. But we now have more fast food outlets including traditional UK fish and chips.