Location + Meaning = Place
Any location that holds meaning becomes a place. We need not have experienced a location directly in order to attribute meaning to it.
Pluto is an example. No one amongst us has physically been there. Yet astrologers and astronomers have helped us gain views on the meaning it holds for them. For astrologers it is a place that provides understanding and perspectives on life. For scientists it raises the question of “What is a planet?”
Whatever meanings and viewpoints we attribute to it, the place that we have named “Pluto” exists as it is...no matter what meanings or labels we do or do not give it.
Another example is Israel. Some years ago I took a group of high school and college students there for a summer. One young woman who was born in the United States wept as she knelt and kissed the tarmac at the airport when we arrived. She had never been to Israel before. Nor had her parents, her grandparents, or great-grandparents. Nonetheless, what she said when she wept and kissed the ground was, "I'm home. For all of us, I'm finally home."
In that moment, no matter what my political views, I understood something new about location. In this case, I understood something new about why the place called "Israel" was about more than bringing a culture of people together. It was also about the meaning associated with a specific location over time.
Thus, it is possible for a location we will likely never directly experience (like Pluto) or a location that we have never directly experienced until now (like Israel) can lead us to very human emotions for and interpretations of that place ranging from fear to affection, from controversy to attachment.
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