Localized

The goal had been simply to head down to Alki and take some pictures of downtown Seattle from there. It's not the most interesting place in the world to take pictures from, and I have quite a lot of them, but I did it anyway, with a mind towards including in a photograph in the rather uninspired idea I'd had for today's post.

Instead, I came across this:

Maybe it's just because I didn't pay any attention, but I never noticed this sort of thing when I lived in Chicago. And to be sure, they aren't everywhere in the Seattle area, but I come across them often enough that they strike me as common.

While I was taking photos of the memorial, a man came up and explained what had happened to the couple. I'd simply presumed that they'd been struck by a car while attempting to cross Harbor Ave. Despite the fact that there's a crosswalk from Luna Park, crossing the street there can feel like taking one's life in one's hands, given how people will sometimes come tearing around the curve. The reality of the case turned out to be much more grim.

As the man related the story, I started to feel that I'd been living under a rock. This had likely been a big case, if only due to how the bodies were found, and here I was, just now hearing about it. (Even true crime podcasts had picked up the story.) I'll admit to being somewhat disconnected from the news of the area, due in no small part to having ended my cable television subscription not long after the Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014. While I often don't feel informed after watching the news, not watching it leaves me in the same state of affairs.

But realizing that I was ignorant of this also served to point out that in a lot of ways, I still don't think of the Seattle area as "home." I've spent about half my life here at this point, yet retain the feeling of being a passing visitor rather than a permanent resident, despite not really having any plans to go anywhere else any time soon. When I think of "home," it's still Chicagoland that comes to mind, despite the fact that when I'm out there, the place has changed so much that if feels like a completely different locale. (Because, honestly, it is.)

It's weird to have lived in a place for so long, and still not feel particularly connected to it in any real sense. Perhaps that is something that will change on its own. I suspect it will have to; I'm not sure what to do about it.